Prayer in the early church · Sophia Scriptura

The practice and teaching of prayer, including its times, posture, and facing east. Part of Worship.

Didache 2.7Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Hate no one; reprove some, pray for others, and love some more than your own life.
Didache 4.14Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Confess your sins in the assembly and pray with a clean conscience.
Didache 8.2Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Pray the Lord's Prayer.
Didache 8.3Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Pray the Lord's Prayer three times a day.
Didache 9.1Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Instructions for the Eucharist begin.
Didache 9.2Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · The thanksgiving over the cup.
Didache 9.3Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · The thanksgiving over the bread.
Didache 9.4Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · A prayer that the church be gathered into one, like grain into bread.
Didache 10.1Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · The thanksgiving after the meal begins.
Didache 10.2Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Thanks for God's name, knowledge, faith, and immortality.
Didache 10.3Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Thanks for daily food and for spiritual food and eternal life.
Didache 10.4Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Thanks for God's power.
Didache 10.5Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · A prayer for the church to be kept, perfected, and gathered into God's kingdom.
Didache 10.6Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · A closing prayer for Christ's coming: “Maranatha.”
Didache 15.4Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Pray, give, and act as the gospel teaches.
1 Clement 2.3Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · They prayed for forgiveness even of unintended sins.
1 Clement 2.4Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · They labored in prayer for the salvation of all believers.
1 Clement 18.2Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · David's prayer of repentance (Psalm 51) begins.
1 Clement 18.3Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · “Wash me from my sin.”
1 Clement 18.4Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · “Against you only have I sinned.”
1 Clement 18.5Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · “I was conceived in sin.”
1 Clement 18.6Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · God loves truth and reveals hidden wisdom.
1 Clement 18.7Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · “Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.”
1 Clement 18.8Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · “Let me hear joy and gladness.”
1 Clement 18.9Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · “Blot out my sins.”
1 Clement 18.10Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · “Create in me a clean heart.”
1 Clement 18.11Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · “Do not take your Holy Spirit from me.”
1 Clement 18.12Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · “Restore the joy of your salvation.”
1 Clement 18.13Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · “I will teach sinners your ways.”
1 Clement 18.14Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · “Deliver me from bloodguilt.”
1 Clement 18.15Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · “My lips will declare your praise.”
1 Clement 18.16Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · God does not desire burnt offerings.
1 Clement 18.17Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · God accepts a broken and contrite heart.
1 Clement 29.1Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Approach God in holiness; he has chosen us.
1 Clement 34.6Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · The angels cry “Holy, holy, holy.”
1 Clement 34.7Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Pray together with one voice.
1 Clement 38.4Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Give thanks to God for everything.
1 Clement 48.1Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Repent quickly and seek God's mercy.
1 Clement 50.2Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Pray to be found in love.
1 Clement 52.1Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · God needs nothing but our confession.
1 Clement 52.2Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Praise pleases God more than sacrifice.
1 Clement 52.3Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Offer praise and call on God in trouble.
1 Clement 52.4Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · A broken spirit is God's sacrifice.
1 Clement 53.4Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Moses offered himself for the people.
1 Clement 55.6Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Esther risked her life and saved her people by fasting and prayer.
1 Clement 56.1Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Pray for the offenders to yield to God's will.
1 Clement 59.2Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Rome will pray that God keep all his elect safe through Christ.
1 Clement 59.3Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · The great prayer praises God, who humbles the proud and lifts the lowly.
1 Clement 59.4Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Intercession for the afflicted, the sick, the hungry, and prisoners.
1 Clement 60.1Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Praise of God the faithful Creator, and a prayer for forgiveness.
1 Clement 60.2Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · A prayer for cleansing and right living.
1 Clement 60.3Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · A prayer for God's favor and protection.
1 Clement 60.4Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · A prayer for peace for all people.
1 Clement 61.1Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · A prayer for the rulers whose authority comes from God.
1 Clement 61.2Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · A prayer that God guide rulers to govern well.
1 Clement 61.3Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · The prayer closes with praise through Christ the high priest.
1 Clement 64.1Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · A closing blessing through Christ the high priest.
Epistle of Barnabas 19.12Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · Make peace, confess sins, and pray with a clean conscience.
Epistle of Barnabas 21.5Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · A prayer for wisdom and endurance.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 5.1.6 (33.6)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Anger mixed with patience spoils it and its prayer.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 9.1 (39.1)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Do not doubt when asking God, even as a sinner.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 9.2 (39.2)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Turn to God wholeheartedly and ask without hesitation.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 9.4 (39.4)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Ask without doubting and you will lack nothing.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 9.5 (39.5)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The doubter receives nothing.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 9.6 (39.6)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The wholehearted receive; the doubter is saved with difficulty.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 9.7 (39.7)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · If an answer is slow, do not doubt; there is a reason.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 9.8 (39.8)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Keep asking; blame yourself, not God, if you give up.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 10.3.2 (42.2)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · A sorrowful man's prayer cannot rise to God's altar.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 10.3.3 (42.3)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Sorrow mixed with prayer is like vinegar in wine.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 11.14 (43.14)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · In the praying assembly the false prophet is struck dumb.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 2.5 (51.5)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The rich is poor in prayer; the poor is rich in prayer. The rich support the poor.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 2.6 (51.6)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The poor pray for the rich who support them.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 4.6 (53.6)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Those who serve God receive what they ask.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 5.4.3 (57.3)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Those who have the Lord in their hearts receive understanding by asking.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 5.4.4 (57.4)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · God gives freely; why not ask him for understanding?
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.11.7 (88.7)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · They spend the night in prayer.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.14.3 (91.3)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Hermas thanks God for sending the angel of repentance.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 1.1.3 (1.3)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · On the road to Cumae a spirit carries Hermas away, and he prays.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 1.1.9 (1.9)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Pray to God, and he will heal your sins.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 2.1.2 (5.2)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Hermas prays and thanks God.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 2.2.1 (6.1)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · After fasting, Hermas understands the writing.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 3.1.5 (9.5)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Afraid, Hermas kneels and confesses his sins.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 3.1.6 (9.6)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · She tells him to pray also for righteousness.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 3.10.6 (18.6)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · She tells him to fast and ask humbly.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 4.1.3 (22.3)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Hermas prays for the completion of the revelations.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 4.1.7 (22.7)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Hermas prays and remembers: do not doubt.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 5.1 (25.1)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · A glorious man dressed as a shepherd visits Hermas.
2 Clement 2.2Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Pray to God sincerely and without growing weary.
2 Clement 9.10Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Praise God from the heart, not only the lips.
2 Clement 15.3Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · God promises: while you are still speaking, I am here.
2 Clement 15.4Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · God is readier to give than we are to ask.
2 Clement 16.4Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Almsgiving, fasting, prayer, and love: almsgiving lightens sin.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 4Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · The Lord leads the disciples to the mountain to pray.
To the Ephesians 10.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Pray for unbelievers and teach them by your conduct.
To the Ephesians 21.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius asks prayer for the church in Syria and says farewell.
To the Magnesians 7.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · As Christ did nothing without the Father, the church should do nothing without its bishop and presbyters.
To the Magnesians 14.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius asks prayer for himself and for the church in Syria.
To the Philadelphians 5.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius relies on the gospel and the apostles, and asks prayer to be made perfect.
To Polycarp 1.3Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Polycarp should pray constantly, watch, speak to each person, and bear others' weaknesses.
To Polycarp 7.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · News that the church at Antioch is at peace has cheered Ignatius as he goes to martyrdom.
To the Romans 4.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius asks prayer that the beasts may make him a sacrifice to God.
To the Romans 8.3Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius asks prayer that he may reach his goal.
To the Romans 9.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius asks prayer for his church in Syria, now shepherded by God alone.
To the Smyrnaeans 4.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Avoid the false teachers entirely, but pray for their repentance.
To the Smyrnaeans 11.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius, least of the Antiochene Christians, asks prayer to reach God.
To the Trallians 12.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Stay united in prayer and support your bishop.
To the Trallians 12.3Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius asks for prayer that he may be found worthy of martyrdom.
To the Trallians 13.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Greetings; pray for the church in Syria.
To the Philippians 4.3Polycarp of Smyrna · ca. 110–135 · Widows are to pray constantly and avoid slander and greed, knowing that they are God's altar and that God sees every secret thought.
To the Philippians 7.2Polycarp of Smyrna · ca. 110–135 · Believers should hold to the teaching handed down from the beginning, watching in prayer and fasting as the Lord taught.
To the Philippians 12.2Polycarp of Smyrna · ca. 110–135 · Polycarp prays that God the Father and Jesus Christ the eternal high priest build the Philippians up and give them a share among the saints.
To the Philippians 12.3Polycarp of Smyrna · ca. 110–135 · Pray for all believers, for rulers, for persecutors, and for the enemies of the cross.
Epistle of the Apostles 40Anonymous · ca. 140-170 · Christ commends the apostles' grief for sinners and says he hears the prayers of the righteous on their behalf.
First Apology 13Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Christians worship the Creator with prayer and thanksgiving, and honor Christ, crucified under Pontius Pilate, in the second place and the prophetic Spirit in the third.
First Apology 17Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Christians pay taxes and pray for the emperors, worshiping God alone; everyone will answer to God.
First Apology 61Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Justin describes baptism: instruction, prayer and fasting, then washing in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, called “illumination.”
First Apology 65Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · After baptism the new Christian joins the prayers; bread and wine mixed with water are brought, thanks are given, and deacons distribute them, also to those absent.
First Apology 67Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Justin describes Sunday worship: Scripture reading, sermon, prayer, the Eucharist, and a collection for the needy, held on the day of creation and of the resurrection.
Acts of John 20Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · Lycomedes laments his wife and dies of grief, and John prays for both to be raised.
Acts of John 22Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · Before the gathered city John prays that the two dead may be raised so that many may believe.
Acts of John 41Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · John prays in the temple that the demon of the place be put to flight.
Acts of John 43Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · John gives glory to Jesus, and the Ephesians ask to be received.
Acts of John 50Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · The young man promises to give up the woman if his father is raised, and John begins to pray.
Acts of John 51Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · John prays for the father to be restored to life.
Acts of John 64Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · Drusiana, grieved at being the occasion of the man's sin, prays to die and dies.
Acts of John 74Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · Andronicus explains the plot, and at John's prayer Callimachus is raised.
Acts of John 76Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · Callimachus tells how the radiant young man stopped him and asks to become a believer; John praises Jesus for his mercy.
Acts of John 79Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · At Andronicus's request John prays to the one God and calls Drusiana back to life.
Acts of John 82Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · Drusiana prays to Christ for Fortunatus to be raised.
Acts of John 85Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · John breaks bread in the tomb with a prayer of thanksgiving to Jesus Christ.
Acts of John 93Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · John tells that the Lord's body was sometimes solid and sometimes immaterial and left no footprints, and that before his arrest he led the disciples in a hymn and ring dance.
Acts of John 107Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · John exhorts the brothers, prays, breaks bread with them, has a grave dug outside the city, and begins his last prayer.
Acts of John 113Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · In his last prayer John thanks the Lord for keeping him from marriage and asks to be received into his rest.
Acts of John 114Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · John ends his prayer, lies down in the grave, and dies in peace.
Acts of Paul and Thecla 24Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · Thecla finds Paul praying for her in the tomb, and both bless God for her rescue.
Acts of Paul and Thecla 29Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · Thecla prays for Tryphaena's dead daughter Falconilla.
Acts of Paul and Thecla 31Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · Tryphaena escorts Thecla to the arena, and Thecla prays for a reward for her.
Acts of Paul and Thecla 42Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · Back in Onesiphorus's house in Iconium, Thecla praises Christ as her helper in every trial.
Evening hymn (Phos hilaron)Anonymous · second or third century · An ancient evening hymn praises Jesus Christ as the joyful light of the Father's glory and gives glory to the Trinity at lamp-lighting.
Sibylline Oracles 7.71ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Sibyl tells of three towers in heaven where Hope, Piety, and Reverence dwell, and of a sacrifice offered not with incense or slaughter but with prayer and birds released to heaven.
Sibylline Oracles 7.81ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Sibyl prescribes a prayer with water poured on fire in memory of Christ's baptism, and hospitality to the poor stranger with a threefold prayer.
Sibylline Oracles 7.91ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · After a prayer to the undefiled God whom hands did not make, the Sibyl foretells the disappearance of Sardinia beneath the sea.
Sibylline Oracles 8.491ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Eighth Book ends: instead of incense and blood sacrifice, Christians are bidden to praise the imperishable God, begetter of all, with pure hearts, love, generous hands, and psalms.
Sentences of Sextus 80Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · Such as you wish to be when you pray to God, be always such.
Sentences of Sextus 81Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · When you have cast away all the best things as plunder, then, as one purified, ask of God what you wish.
Sentences of Sextus 126Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · The prayers or vows of a lazy man are empty words.
Sentences of Sextus 217Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · God does not hear the prayer of a man who does not hear the needy.
Sentences of Sextus 372Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · He who cares for men and prays to God for them is truly to be considered to be from God.
Sentences of Sextus 374Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · It is the part of a worshipper of God to pray to God for the salvation of men.
Sentences of Sextus 375Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · When what you asked of God has been granted to you as you prayed, then understand that power has been granted you by God.
Sentences of Sextus 378Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · If you do not give to the needy when you can, you do not receive from God when you ask.
Sentence 80 (Greek)Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · Be always such as you wish to be when you pray.
Sentence 88 (Greek)Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · Pray that there may come to you not what you want but what is right and beneficial.
Sentence 122 (Greek)Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · Pray to God for what is worthy of God.
Sentence 124 (Greek)Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · Ask from God what you could not receive from a human being.
Sentence 125 (Greek)Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · Pray that what toils lead to may come to you after the toils.
Sentence 126 (Greek)Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · The prayer of a lazy person is empty talk.
Sentence 213 (Greek)Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · Pray to be able to do good to your enemies.
Sentence 217 (Greek)Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · God does not hear the prayer of one who does not hear people in need.
Sentence 261 (Greek)Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · Consider even punishing someone justly a thing to pray to be spared.
Sentence 277 (Greek)Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · All pray to have good things, but only those who genuinely share in the divine Word acquire them.
Sentence 372 (Greek)Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · One who provides for people and prays for all, let him be considered truly God's.
Sentence 374 (Greek)Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · And it is the pious person's work to pray to God to save.
Sentence 375 (Greek)Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · Whenever what you prayed for comes to you from God, then consider that you have authority with God.
Dialogue with Trypho 1.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Justin replies that most philosophers do not care whether God cares for individuals.
Dialogue with Trypho 7.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The prophets proclaimed the Father and his Son Christ; the old man urges Justin to pray for understanding.
Dialogue with Trypho 30.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christians find God's words sweeter than honey, and pray to be kept from evil spirits.
Dialogue with Trypho 30.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christians pray through Christ to be kept from demons, which flee at his name.
Dialogue with Trypho 35.8Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christians pray for their enemies, that they may be saved at Christ's return.
Dialogue with Trypho 90.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Moses' outstretched hands in the battle against Amalek formed the sign of the cross.
Dialogue with Trypho 90.5Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · It was the sign of the cross and the name of Jesus, not the posture of prayer, that won the battle.
Dialogue with Trypho 96.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christians pray for their enemies, as Christ taught.
Dialogue with Trypho 99.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christ's prayer in the garden fulfills the psalm and shows his true humanity.
Dialogue with Trypho 105.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christ's prayer teaches us to pray at death that no evil angel seize our soul.
Dialogue with Trypho 105.5Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christ commended his spirit to the Father at death.
Dialogue with Trypho 108.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christians do not hate the Jews but pray for their repentance.
Dialogue with Trypho 117.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Prayers and thanksgivings from the worthy are the only perfect sacrifices.
Dialogue with Trypho 117.5Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Prayers in Jesus' name are offered among every people on earth.
Dialogue with Trypho 133.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Despite God's wonders, Israel sacrificed children and rejected Christ; Justin prays for their salvation.
Dialogue with Trypho 133.6Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christians pray for their persecutors, as Christ commanded.
Dialogue with Trypho 142.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · They part as friends, praying for each other; Justin prays that they may come to believe Jesus is the Christ.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 5.1Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Polycarp was persuaded to leave the city and spent his time in prayer for all the churches.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 5.2Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · In a vision Polycarp saw his pillow on fire and knew he would be burned alive.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 7.2Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Polycarp welcomed his captors with a meal and asked for an hour to pray.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 7.3Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Polycarp prayed aloud for two hours, and many of his captors regretted coming for him.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 8.1Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · After praying for all, Polycarp was taken into the city on a donkey on a “great Sabbath.”
Martyrdom of Polycarp 14.1Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Bound to the stake like a sacrificial ram, Polycarp began his final prayer to God the Father.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 14.2Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Polycarp thanked God for the honor of sharing Christ's suffering and prayed to be received as a sacrifice.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 14.3Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Polycarp ended his prayer with praise to God through Christ, the eternal High Priest.
Lines 17–20Anonymous · ca. 160–220 · Abercius dictates the epitaph in his seventy-second year and asks those who understand and agree to pray for him.
Diatessaron, section 10Tatian · ca. 160-180
Diatessaron, section 33Tatian · ca. 160-180
Diatessaron, section 47Tatian · ca. 160-180
Diatessaron, section 48Tatian · ca. 160-180
41Anonymous · ca. 161–180 or 249–251 · Carpus dies with a prayer of thanks.
46Anonymous · ca. 161–180 or 249–251 · Agathonice's last cry.
To Autolycus 1.11Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · Christians honor the emperor, obey him, and pray for him, but worship God alone.
To Autolycus 3.14Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · Christians are taught to love their enemies, to do good without boasting, and to obey and pray for the authorities.
A Plea for the Christians 13Athenagoras · ca. 176–180 · Christians do not offer animal sacrifices because God, the Creator, needs nothing; the sacrifice he wants is knowledge of him, prayer, and a bloodless, reasonable worship.
A Plea for the Christians 37Athenagoras · ca. 176–180 · Athenagoras asks the emperors for their favor: Christians pray for them and their succession, so that they may live quiet and peaceful lives.
Martyrdom of Peter (Greek Acts of Peter) 10Anonymous · ca. 180–200 · Peter gives thanks to Christ with the silent voice of the spirit and dies; Marcellus embalms his body and is rebuked in a vision for his lavish care of the dead.
Acts of Peter (Vercelli) 3Anonymous · ca. 180–200 · Paul celebrates a eucharist of bread and water, an adulteress is struck down, he exhorts the new believers, prays, and is escorted to the harbour to sail for Spain.
Acts of Peter (Vercelli) 10Anonymous · ca. 180–200 · Marcellus repents of following Simon, who had mocked Peter's doubt on the water, and Peter prays for his restoration.
Acts of Peter (Vercelli) 18Anonymous · ca. 180–200 · Peter urges the brothers to fast and pray for Simon's defeat, since Christ is present within them.
Acts of Peter (Vercelli) 19Anonymous · ca. 180–200 · Marcellus cleanses his house of Simon's traces with water in Christ's name and invites Peter to pray with the widows there.
Acts of Peter (Vercelli) 21Anonymous · ca. 180–200 · Blind widows are healed by a heavenly light and each describes Christ in a different form: an old man, a young man, a boy.
Acts of Peter (Vercelli) 39Anonymous · ca. 180–200 · Hanging on the cross, Peter gives thanks to Christ in the silence of the spirit and urges the brothers to hope in him alone.
Adumbrations on 1 John, paragraph 11Clement of Alexandria · original ca. 200; Latin translation 6th century · On 1 John 5:6–20: the three witnesses are saving powers in the Savior; prayer is heard when we ask what we ought; ‘the world’ in the evil one means worldly men, not creation.
Fragment 61 (Sacra Parallela 300)Clement of Alexandria · late 2nd-early 3rd century
Fragment 44 (Exhortation to Endurance, or To the Newly Baptized (Clement's precepts))Clement of Alexandria · late 2nd-early 3rd century · A set of precepts for a newly baptized Christian on quiet conduct, speech, prayer, temperance, trust in God, and endurance in illness.
The Instructor 2.4.41Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Flutes and pipes suit beasts and idolaters, and sensual music corrupts; the instruments of Psalm 150 are to be understood spiritually as the tongue, mouth, body, and church.
The Instructor 2.4.42Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Other peoples use instruments for war; Christians use one peaceful instrument, the Word, to honor God.
The Instructor 2.4.43Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · At meals Christians should love God through thanksgiving and psalms and their neighbor through good conversation; singing to the lyre or cithara, as David did, is not blameworthy.
The Instructor 2.4.44Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Blessing God with psalms at meals and before sleep is fitting; Greek drinking songs imitated the Hebrew psalms; love songs and soft, chromatic music are to be avoided.
The Instructor 2.7.60Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Wisdom forbids idle chatter even in prayer; at table Christians should avoid rude noises and habits, and behave with calm and decorum, for the Christian belongs to peace.
The Instructor 2.9.77Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Before sleep we should bless God and call on the Word; luxurious bedding is harmful as well as self-indulgent, and plain level beds are healthier.
The Instructor 2.9.79Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Christians should be like servants awake for their master's return, rising at night to bless God like the watchful angels; the enlightened are awake and alive.
The Instructor 2.9.80Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Wisdom and Paul call us to watchfulness and sobriety as children of the day; light food and discipline keep us wakeful, and the inner light should be turned within.
The Instructor 2.9.81Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Overeating brings heavy sleep and clouds the soul, as Lot's drunken sleep shows; Christians should rise at night to study, work, or spin, and not sleep by day.
The Instructor 2.9.82Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The soul does not need sleep, only the body; true dreams come from a sober soul, and constant converse with God makes us wakeful like the angels.
The Instructor 2.10.96Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Marriage aims at children; abortion, used to hide sexual immorality, destroys humanity with the embryo; the married should not have intercourse by day, the time for prayer, reading, and good works.
The Instructor 3.6.36Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Only the good, the Christians, can possess true goods: righteousness and the Word; the one who asks God receives, so the godly possess all things.
The Instructor 3.11.79Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Buyers and sellers should name one honest price without oaths; Christ drove the dishonest from the temple; men and women should come to church modestly, and women should be veiled at prayer.
The Instructor 3.12.89Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The Decalogue, signified by the letter iota (ten), and Isaiah's call to wash and do justice sum up the commandments; good works themselves are prayer acceptable to God.
The Instructor 3.12.90Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · God hears the one who acts justly; the fast God chooses is freeing the oppressed and feeding the hungry, and the sacrifice he wants is a broken spirit and a heart that glorifies him.
The Instructor 3.12.92Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Scripture condemns liars and the conceited, blesses the humble and merciful, and commands love of enemies and faith in prayer; servants must be treated as equals before God.
The Instructor 3.12.95Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The apostolic household code: wives, husbands, children, fathers, slaves, and masters; then Paul's exhortations to walk by the Spirit, bear burdens, be at peace, pray, and speak graciously.
The Instructor 3.12.96Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · More apostolic counsels: train for godliness, serve believing masters faithfully, give generously, love sincerely, pray constantly, and practice hospitality.
The Instructor 3.12.101Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The work ends with a prayer to the Word, Instructor and Teacher, and a hymn to Christ the Savior as shepherd, fisher of men, and nourishing milk of his children, praised with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Against Heresies 2.31.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The heretics' wonders are magical deceptions; they cannot heal or raise the dead, as the Lord, the apostles, and the church have done.
Against Heresies 2.32.5Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The church heals by prayer in Jesus' name, not by incantations, which shows that Christ truly worked by the power of God.
Against Heresies 3.6.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Irenaeus prays to the God of Abraham, Father of Jesus Christ, that every reader may know him as the only God and avoid heresy.
Against Heresies 3.12.5Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The first church's prayer and preaching invoked the Creator and his anointed Son Jesus; this is the voice from which every church began.
Against Heresies 4.17.6Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The name glorified among the nations is Christ’s, which the Father calls his own; through Christ the Church offers the pure sacrifice and the incense of prayer.
Against Heresies 4.18.6Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · We offer to God not because he needs it but to give thanks and for our own sake; our offerings are directed to the altar in heaven.
8Anonymous · ca. 180–185 · Christians' bloodless sacrifice is prayer, including prayer for rulers.
9Anonymous · ca. 180–185 · Christians pray daily for the emperor, who reigns by God's will.
44Anonymous · ca. 180–185 · Apollonius hoped Perennis would be enlightened.
Prophetic Extracts 10.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Those in frail bodies, like sailors in an old ship, pray constantly.
Prophetic Extracts 15.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · When the apostles could not cast out a demon, Christ showed that prayer is stronger than faith,
Prophetic Extracts 15.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · saying such cases need prayer. The believer is forgiven by the Lord; the one who has attained knowledge no longer sins and so forgives himself the rest.
Prophetic Extracts 19.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · One who advances from faith and fear to knowledge calls God “Our Father,” not as a slave.
Prophetic Extracts 19.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Freed from the spirit of slavery and adopted through love, he keeps the commandments out of love and cries “Abba, Father.”
Prophetic Extracts 64.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · “Save the king” means the people anointed for the kingdom, as the plural “hear us” shows.
Excerpts from Theodotus 84.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Hence the fasts, prayers, raised hands, and kneeling before baptism: a soul is rescued from the lions' mouth, and temptations follow from the angry powers.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 1.4Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · The truly loving course is to help the rich toward salvation, by prayer to God and by teaching that leads them to the truth and to good works.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 1.5Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · Prayer needs perseverance to the end of life, and conduct needs a steady will to keep all the Savior's commandments.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 4.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · Clement prays that the Savior will help him give the brethren a true and saving account of hope.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 34.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · The poor believers helped by the rich become their bodyguards, whose prayers, laying on of hands, and exorcisms protect them.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 35.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · Each of these poor believers serves: some pray for you, some comfort, teach, or admonish, and all love you sincerely.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 40.6Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · Deep-rooted passions cannot be cut off at once, but with God's power, prayer, brotherly help, repentance, and practice they are overcome.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 41.5Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · The guide should intercede for him through many nights of prayer, for the Father cannot resist his children's pleas.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 41.6Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · His intercession is pure if he is honored as God's messenger and grieves only for the rich man's sake; this is sincere repentance.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 41.7Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · God is not mocked: he searches hearts, heard the three youths in the fire and Jonah in the whale, and is near to believers.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 42.15Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · John assured him of Christ's forgiveness, kissed his right hand, and restored him to the church through prayer, fasting, and teaching: an example of true repentance.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 42.20Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · Doxology to the Father through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
Miscellanies 1.1.8Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The word should not be handed to those full of sophistry, but received by faith, which then brings understanding; the believer should pray David's psalm of cleansing.
Miscellanies 1.6.34Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Prayer and the care of the soul need knowledge: goodness comes by learning, not by nature alone; the gifted can fall through neglect, the less gifted rise by education; God made us sociable and just.
Miscellanies 2.23.145Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Marriage must be kept pure like a sacred image, with prayer morning and night and decency in word and deed; Scripture forbids divorce except for sexual immorality and counts remarriage adultery while the other spouse lives.
Miscellanies 3.1.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The Basilidians read “better to marry than to burn” as advice not to wear out the soul in struggle; Isidore counsels marriage for those who cannot pray free of desire, and otherwise brotherly help.
Miscellanies 3.11.78Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Paul contrasts living by the flesh, which is death and enmity to God, with life in the Spirit; believers are sons of God by the Spirit of adoption, not free to indulge the flesh.
Miscellanies 3.12.79Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Paul's permission for spouses to abstain by consent and for a time teaches self-control without endangering marriage; celibacy and marriage each have their own service to the Lord, and bishops should be tested by ruling their households.
Miscellanies 3.12.81Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Tatian taught that returning to marital relations after prayer serves the devil; Clement answers that sexual immorality is devilish, but chaste marriage unites for prayer and children, as Scripture's “Adam knew Eve … God raised up seed” shows.
Miscellanies 4.17.109Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Following 1 Clement, faith in Christ confirms the psalm's call to fear the Lord, avoid evil, do good, and seek peace, which Clement reads as the mystery of the seventh and eighth: perfection in deed and word.
Miscellanies 4.18.113Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Love keeps one from sin, and if one falls, confession and a broken spirit please God; God is love, and love fulfills the law, as Christ does; the same deed differs as done from fear or from love, by faith or by knowledge.
Miscellanies 4.19.119Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Esther, by fasting and prayer, saved Israel from Haman; Miriam shared leadership with Moses; Susanna, condemned by the lustful elders, remained an unwavering witness to chastity even to death.
Miscellanies 4.22.141Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Sleep and death both withdraw the soul, as Heraclitus says; Paul calls us to wake, for salvation is near, and to put on the weapons of light, that is, the Son's precepts; hence washing before prayer.
Miscellanies 4.22.142Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Outward washing before prayer symbolizes inner purity, holy thought; the image of baptism passed from Moses to the poets, as in Homer's Penelope and Telemachus; true purity is of mind, deeds, words, and even dreams.
Miscellanies 4.23.148Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Obedience for reward is bait; the knower turns from sensible to intelligible things out of love, admiring creation and its Maker, and prays to be free of desire, content with little, near to God.
Miscellanies 4.23.152Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Christ removed anger with desire; the one deified into freedom from passion becomes one; like sailors pulling on an anchor who draw themselves to it, those who seek God are drawn to him; serving God is caring for oneself, and purity makes one like God.
Miscellanies 4.26.171Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The Pythagoreans prayed aloud so that prayers would be just; Christians should let their works cry out as in daylight, imitating God; the poets' epithets “godlike” echo the image and likeness of God.
Miscellanies 5.3.16Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Hope and faith see with the mind; the Word, who is the truth, is seen by the mind, as Plato's truth is seen only by the mind; the Word created the world and then became flesh to be seen; the kingdom is seized by persistent righteous living and prayer.
Miscellanies 5.10.61Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Clement distinguishes the mysteries handed down by the apostles from the faith preached to the Gentiles, and reads “every person perfect in Christ” as the whole person purified, since knowledge is not for all.
Miscellanies 6.3.28Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The Greeks themselves tell wonders like those of the prophets, such as Aeacus' prayer that ended a drought, so they cannot reasonably disbelieve the miracles of Moses and the prophets.
Miscellanies 6.3.29Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Samuel's prayer for rain shows that the one God answers the prayers of the righteous; the Greeks tell similar stories of Aristaeus and of the Delphians' sacrifice to the winds.
Miscellanies 6.9.77Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Through love the future is present to the one who knows; he does not pray for earthly goods but to keep the faith and that many may become like him, for whoever resembles the Savior helps save others.
Miscellanies 6.9.78Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · God answers the knower before he speaks; knowledge, acquired and made firm by practice and love, grasps God, his Son, and all the Lord taught, from creation to the end.
Miscellanies 6.12.101Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Sarah laughed from modesty, not unbelief, and Abraham called her his sister; God grants the prayers of the repentant when they ask, but gives to the knower at a mere thought, as with Hannah, since he knows the heart and foreknew that creation was good.
Miscellanies 6.12.102Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The knower prays at all times, first for forgiveness, then for power to do good and to understand creation, aiming at the face-to-face vision; fasting means abstaining from all evil, and righteousness must be complete on every side.
Miscellanies 6.14.112Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Without knowledge one cannot rightly handle life; the fight for freedom from pleasure goes on everywhere, and those who do not do good do not know their own good, so they cannot pray rightly or use God's gifts well.
Miscellanies 6.14.113Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · A good conscience keeps the soul holy toward God and just toward others; such a soul, empowered by the Lord, practices being godlike, gives thanks in reading, prayer, offering, and song, and is never separated from God.
Miscellanies 7.6.31Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · God needs no food, not even the savor of burnt offerings that Hesiod describes; Christians honor him by prayer offered through the Word, and their altar on earth is the assembly united in prayer.
Miscellanies 7.6.32Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · God does not breathe or eat; the church's true sacrifice is prayer rising from holy souls, the righteous soul is the true altar, and the sacrifices of the law are allegories of the soul's cleansing.
Miscellanies 7.6.34Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · God wants sacrifices dear to him, not costly ones: the true incense is the united prayer and praise of all nations in one faith, and the holy fire purifies sinful souls, not meat.
Miscellanies 7.7.35Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The one who knows worships God not only on special days or in special places but all his life and everywhere, praising God at work and on journeys, grave toward God and cheerful over his gifts.
Miscellanies 7.7.37Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · God needs no bodily ears to hear prayer: he knows the thoughts and choices of the holy directly, searching the depths of the soul like a lamp.
Miscellanies 7.7.38Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Prayer offered with an unworthy idea of God is not true piety; since prayers follow desires, the one who knows prays for the true goods of the soul and works to become good himself.
Miscellanies 7.7.39Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Those who know God and the true goods should pray to the one good God; prayer is converse with God, and even silent prayer is a cry that he hears.
Miscellanies 7.7.40Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · In prayer Christians raise head and hands and stand on tiptoe, straining toward God; some keep the third, sixth, and ninth hours, but the one who knows prays throughout his whole life.
Miscellanies 7.7.41Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Against the followers of Prodicus, who say one need not pray, Clement holds that the one who knows according to the church's rule receives what he asks; he gives thanks and prays for others' conversion, as the Lord did.
Miscellanies 7.7.42Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Every chance to approach God in prayer should be taken; God does good freely, not by necessity, and saves those who freely turn to him, and his providence cares for us as a shepherd cares for sheep.
Miscellanies 7.7.43Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Any place and time can be holy for prayer; God hears thoughts without words, so one may pray in silence; Christians pray facing the east, the image of the rising light of knowledge.
Miscellanies 7.7.44Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The wicked harm themselves by praying for apparent goods; the one who knows prays for the true goods of the soul, is content, united with the Spirit in love, and speaks the truth frankly without fear or favor.
Miscellanies 7.7.46Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · God gives each what he needs; the beginner asks for faith, the advancing believer for perfect love, and the one who knows prays that his contemplation may grow and that he may never fall, as some angels did.
Miscellanies 7.7.49Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Whoever converses with God must be pure; the life of the one who knows is a continual festival of prayer, praise, Scripture reading, psalms, and hymns, together with giving to the needy, and he prays everywhere, often silently.
Miscellanies 7.12.73Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The one who knows prays always and receives what he asks, because he asks only for what is good; righteousness chosen freely, not from fear or hope of reward, is the royal road.
Miscellanies 7.12.78Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The one who knows shares others' sufferings, gives even from his own need, lives as a stranger on earth ready for death, does everything in holiness whether eating, drinking, or marrying, and prays together with the angels and saints.
Miscellanies 7.12.79Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Righteousness from fear avoids evil, but love does good freely; the prayer of the one who knows is thanksgiving for past, present, and future, and he lives ready to depart and be with Christ, having renounced fleshly attachments.
Miscellanies 7.13.81Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The one who knows forgives all who wrong him and prays accordingly; he prays for the needs of poor brothers rather than for wealth to give them, and becomes an instrument of God's goodness.
Miscellanies 7.14.84Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Clement closes his sketch of the one who knows and turns to 1 Corinthians 6: going to law before the unjust is seeking revenge, praying for retribution is better but still imperfect, and the perfect pray for their enemies.
Octavius 27.5Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · Demons confess what they are when Christians cast them out.
Octavius 29.8Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · The shape of the cross is found in nature, in ships, and in the posture of prayer.
Apology 16Tertullian · ca. 197 · Tertullian refutes the slanders that Christians worship an ass's head, the cross, or the sun, and mocks a caricature of the Christian god displayed in Carthage.
Apology 30Tertullian · ca. 197 · Christians pray to the true God, from whom the emperors have their power, for the emperor's long life, safe empire, and a quiet world, even while being tortured.
Apology 31Tertullian · ca. 197 · The Christian Scriptures command prayer for enemies and persecutors and, by name, for kings and rulers.
Apology 32Tertullian · ca. 197 · Christians pray for the empire because its continuance delays the end of the age, and they swear by the emperors' welfare, not by their genii, which are demons.
Apology 39Tertullian · ca. 197 · Tertullian describes Christian life together: common prayer, Scripture reading, discipline, elders chosen for character, a voluntary fund for the poor and imprisoned, and the agape meal.
Apology 40Tertullian · ca. 197 · Christians are blamed for every disaster, yet worse disasters struck before Christ; the human race has always offended God, and Christians' fasting and prayer now soften his anger.
Against the Jews 5Tertullian · ca. 197–207 · Cain's and Abel's offerings prefigure the earthly sacrifices of Israel and the spiritual sacrifices of the church; the prophets foretell that pure sacrifices of praise will be offered to God in every place.
To the Nations 1.13Tertullian · 197 · Christians are thought to worship the sun because they pray eastward and keep Sunday, but pagans themselves honor the sun and have even borrowed Jewish sabbath customs.
On the Shows 25Tertullian · ca. 197–202 · No one can think of God at the shows, which stir lust and passion; the hands and mouth used in worship should not applaud actors and gladiators.
On Baptism 20Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Candidates should prepare for baptism with prayer, fasting, vigils, and confession of sins; after baptism they should pray for spiritual gifts and remember Tertullian in their prayers.
On Prayer 1Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Christ, the Spirit, Word, and Reason of God, gave his new disciples a new, brief form of prayer, to be offered in secret, that sums up the whole gospel.
On Prayer 2Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · In calling God “Father” we honor him, fulfill Christ's command, and acknowledge the Son and the church, our mother, while rebuking those who do not know the Father.
On Prayer 3Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · The Father's name, revealed in the Son, is already holy; in praying “hallowed be your name” we join the angels' praise and ask that it be hallowed in us and in all people, even our enemies.
On Prayer 4Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · In praying “your will be done” we ask that God's saving will be done in us, flesh and spirit, and prepare ourselves to endure as Christ submitted to the Father's will in his passion.
On Prayer 5Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Praying for God's kingdom to come means longing for the end of the world and the final vindication of the martyrs, not asking for the world to be prolonged.
On Prayer 6Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · The petition for daily bread is chiefly a prayer for Christ, the bread of life, and union with his body; taken literally it asks only for what is needed today.
On Prayer 7Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · After asking for bread we ask for forgiveness, confessing our sins and promising to forgive others, as Christ taught in the parable of the unforgiving servant.
On Prayer 8Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · “Lead us not into temptation” means “do not let us be led into it” by the devil, the true tempter; the last clause, “deliver us from evil,” explains it.
On Prayer 9Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · The Lord's Prayer, though brief, sums up the teaching of Scripture and fulfills every duty of prayer, because God himself taught it.
On Prayer 10Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · After the Lord's Prayer, as a foundation, believers may add their own petitions for particular needs.
On Prayer 11Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Before praying we must be reconciled with our brothers and put away anger, as Christ and the apostle commanded.
On Prayer 12Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Prayer must come from a spirit free of every disturbance, for the Holy Spirit receives only a spirit like his own.
On Prayer 13Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · What matters in prayer is a clean spirit and hands clean of sin, not ritual handwashing, which some practice in imitation of Pilate.
On Prayer 14Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Jewish ritual washing cannot cleanse hands stained with the blood of the prophets and of Christ; Christians pray with hands raised and outstretched in the shape of the cross.
On Prayer 15Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Tertullian rejects superstitious customs in prayer with no apostolic warrant, such as removing one's cloak, which imitates pagan practice.
On Prayer 16Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · The custom of sitting down after prayer has no authority; the Shepherd of Hermas mentions it only as narrative, and it is irreverent before God and his angel.
On Prayer 17Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Prayer should be offered humbly and quietly, like the tax collector's, since God hears the heart, as Jonah's prayer from the whale shows.
On Prayer 18Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Those fasting should not refuse the kiss of peace after common prayer, since that reveals their fast, which Christ commanded be kept hidden; only on the public fast of Passover is the kiss rightly omitted.
On Prayer 23Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Christians do not kneel on Sunday or during the Easter season, as signs of joy, but kneel at other times, especially on fast days; Scripture sets no fixed times, only to pray always.
On Prayer 24Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Praying “in every place” does not contradict the command not to pray in public; it means wherever occasion or necessity requires, as the apostles did in prison and on the ship.
On Prayer 25Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Though no hours of prayer are commanded, it is good to pray at the third, sixth, and ninth hours, as the apostles did, besides morning and evening prayer and prayer before meals and bathing.
On Prayer 26Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Hospitality should include prayer, both when receiving a brother and when being received, as Christ commanded his disciples to greet a house with peace.
On Prayer 27Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Some add the Alleluia and responsorial psalms to their prayers, a good practice that honors God.
On Prayer 28Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Prayer offered in spirit and truth is the spiritual sacrifice that replaces the old sacrifices, and Christians are its priests.
On Prayer 29Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Prayer has great power: in the old covenant it worked deliverances and punishments, but Christian prayer brings endurance in suffering, turns away God's wrath, and does only good; all creation prays, and Christ himself prayed.
On Repentance 9Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · The second repentance must be shown outwardly in exomologesis, public confession with sackcloth, ashes, fasting, weeping, and kneeling before the presbyters and the faithful, through which God pardons.
On Repentance 10Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Many avoid public penance out of shame, but among fellow Christians the sinner is before Christ himself, who prays for him; hiding sin from men does not hide it from God.
To His Wife 2.4Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · A pagan husband will obstruct his Christian wife's fasts, night services, Easter vigil, Eucharist, prison visits, and hospitality.
To His Wife 2.5Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · Even a tolerant pagan husband knows and can exploit his wife's Christian practices, such as signing herself with the cross, night prayer, and taking the reserved Eucharist.
To His Wife 2.8Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · Rich Christian women marry pagans out of worldliness, but marriage between two believers, sealed by the church's blessing and shared in prayer, fasting, and worship, is supremely happy.
Acts of Thomas 10Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · The flute girl proclaims Thomas a man of God; the king brings him to the bridal chamber, where he prays for the couple to Christ, who descended to Hades and freed its prisoners.
Acts of Thomas 24Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · The king frees Thomas and asks to serve his God; Gad asks the same, and Thomas prays that Christ receive them into his flock through washing and oil.
Acts of Thomas 25Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Thomas's prayer for the king and his brother ends: may they hold fast to Christ, the good Shepherd, and grow to perfection.
Acts of Thomas 60Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Thomas's fame spreads and he heals the sick laid in his path; the healed praise Jesus and ask to join his flock, and Thomas begins a prayer of glory.
Acts of Thomas 61Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Thomas's prayer thanks Christ for his gifts and asks him to look on those who have left homes, possessions, families, and spouses for his sake.
Acts of Thomas 67Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Thomas commits the believers and Xenophon's flock to the Lord and blesses them before leaving.
Acts of Thomas 71Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · The wild asses draw Thomas to the city; the end of the chapter and the start of Thomas's prayer are lost, and the prayer closes with thanks to Christ who bought us with his blood.
Acts of Thomas 81Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Thomas prays and the captain's wife and daughter are restored; he sends the wild asses back to their pastures.
Acts of Thomas 97Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Mygdonia prays for strength to keep her chastity against Charisius.
Acts of Thomas 107Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Going to prison, Thomas thanks Jesus that he is counted worthy to suffer and be reviled for his sake.
Acts of Thomas 123Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Charisius finds Mygdonia and Marcia praying to be delivered from his madness and urges her to trust him rather than the sorcerer.
Acts of Thomas 141Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · At the king's plea Thomas prays to the Lord of the waters, and the flood subsides; Thomas is taken back to prison.
Acts of Thomas 143Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Thomas urges belief in Christ the physician and begins a prayer recalling how Christ kept him from corruption and called him to true wealth and to continence.
Acts of Thomas 144Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · The second form of the opening of Thomas's prayer: Christ kept him through temptation and poverty, and he never married so that God's temple might stay unpolluted.
Acts of Thomas 145Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Thomas thanks Christ for showing him that earthly wealth is loss and for making him poor, a slave, and a prisoner for his sake, and prays that his labor may not be in vain.
Acts of Thomas 146Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Thomas's prayer draws on the Lord's parables: the sower and the tares, the vine, the talents and the pounds, the great supper, the wedding garment, the lamps, and the watchful servant.
Acts of Thomas 147Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Thomas's prayer continues with the images of the watchful servant, the plough, and the white fields ready for harvest.
Acts of Thomas 148Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Thomas prays that, having overcome the passions and kept watch, he may pass the hostile powers and tax collectors of the heavenly ascent unharmed and stand before the judge.
Acts of Thomas 156Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Thomas prays to Christ, crucified, descended to Hades, and risen, to gather Vazan, Tertia, and Mnesara into his flock and make them temples of the Holy Spirit.
Acts of Thomas 166Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · On the mountain Thomas exhorts the crowd, has Vazan pay the soldiers so that he may pray, and asks the Lord to guide his soul past its enemies.
Acts of Thomas 167Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Thomas, having been allowed to pray, thanks the Lord that as a slave he now receives freedom; the four soldiers kill him, and the brothers wrap his body.
Bruce Codex, untitled work 9Anonymous · ca. 200–300 · The Indivisible wears a crown of 365 kinds of life, for which embodied souls pray; his realm contains the God-begetting land, the All-mother and a basket on which the prayers of creatures are laid, and the twelve righteous ones praise the Only-begotten.
Bruce Codex, untitled work 10Anonymous · ca. 200–300 · Three further Enneads with baskets, the immeasurable depth with twelve fatherhoods and five powers named Love, Hope, Faith, Knowledge and Peace, and Aphredon's basket of prayers are described; the Thrice-powerful receives a sonship too bright for the Pleroma to bear.
Bruce Codex, untitled work 17Anonymous · ca. 200–300 · The Mother of the All and the powers sing a hymn to the One Alone, unknowable except by his will, who begot man in his own mind, and the Mother asks him for power to make her offspring know him as their Saviour.
Bruce Codex, untitled work 22Anonymous · ca. 200–300 · The Man of God is praised in a long litany to the Father of the light as above every infinite, incomprehensible and unknown power, the one in whom the All exists and who bounds all things while none comprehends him; the text breaks off.
Didascalia 2.57Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 3.6–7 (Latin)Anonymous · first half of the third century · Widows who seek gain and gossip are not heard in prayer, but the quiet widow who prays night and day and works to give to others is heard at once, like the widow of the two coins.
Didascalia 4.6Anonymous · first half of the third century
Arabic Pentateuch fragment XVI (on Num 5:5–7; 11–28. 6)Hippolytus of Rome · unknown (transmitted in a medieval Arabic catena) · Hippolytus is cited on Num 5–6: the law of restitution teaches confession and repentance, the ordeal of the suspected wife figures the testing of the pure and impure soul, and the Nazirite vow teaches the guarding of soul and faith.
Apostolic Tradition 35Hippolytus of Rome · early third century · The faithful pray on rising before work and give priority to instruction in the word at the church.
Apostolic Tradition 41 (English)Hippolytus of Rome · early third century
Apostolic Tradition 41 (Latin)Hippolytus of Rome · early third century · Prayer at the ninth hour recalls the water and blood from Christ's side; one also prays before going to bed.
Apostolic Tradition 41 (English)Hippolytus of Rome · early third century
Book of Jeu 1 41Anonymous · ca. 200–300 · Standing with the Twelve in the seventh inner treasury, Jesus sings a hymn of praise to the unapproachable God for each stage of the emanation of the treasuries, and the disciples answer each praise with a threefold Amen.
Book of Jeu 2 52Anonymous · ca. 200–300 · Jesus gives the seals, numbers and defences by which the soul passes the archons of the twelve aeons, the twenty-four emanations of the thirteenth aeon and the powers of the fourteenth, and explains that the three archons of the light hold back those who lack the mystery of the forgiveness of sins; the end of the book is lost, and two fragments of Gnostic prayers follow.
Pistis Sophia 136Anonymous · 3rd century
Letters to Virgins 1.12.2Anonymous · 3rd century · Visit and pray over the possessed in faith, not with showy formulas.
Letters to Virgins 1.12.3Anonymous · 3rd century · Exorcism requires prayer, faith, and fasting, not empty words.
Letters to Virgins 1.12.5Anonymous · 3rd century · Labour for the sick with vigils, fasts, and prayer, freely.
1.20Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · Fragments on Susanna 22–44: her dilemma and cry as a pattern for Christians tried for Christ's name, and the angel sent in answer to prayer.
Commentary on Daniel 2.3-4Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · On Daniel 2:7–23: the Chaldeans' failure, the decree against the wise men, Arioch as 'chief cook', and Daniel's prayer and thanksgiving when the mystery is revealed.
Commentary on Daniel 2.10Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · On Daniel 2:49: Daniel remembers his three companions, who had prayed with him, and they receive honour from the king.
Commentary on Daniel 2.29Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · The three youths' prayer and hymn in the furnace: confession of sin, then a summons to all creation, in order, to bless the Lord, ending with themselves.
Commentary on Daniel 3.20Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · On Daniel 6:4–9: the satraps, failing to corrupt Daniel, persuade Darius to forbid prayer to any but himself for thirty days, as Haman once plotted against the Jews.
Commentary on Daniel 3.21-23Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · On Daniel 6:10: Daniel prays openly despite the decree rather than hide his faith; Christians obey the authorities by doing no evil, but must die rather than deny God, as the apostles obeyed God rather than men.
Commentary on Daniel 3.24Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · Daniel would not set God's glory below men's; Christians threatened with death for worshipping God must choose to die; the devil persecutes the saints to stop their prayer, which defeats him as Moses' raised hands defeated Amalek.
Commentary on Daniel 4.27-28Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · Gabriel's interpretation of the vision (Dan 8:15–27) confirms the reading of the beasts; Hippolytus then turns to the seventy weeks, beginning with Daniel's prayer of confession (Dan 9:1–7).
Commentary on Daniel 4.29Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · On Daniel 9:20–23: Daniel confesses the sins of the people, and Gabriel is sent to give him understanding.
The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity 3Anonymous · 203 · Perpetua resists her father's pleading, confesses before Hilarianus and is condemned to the beasts, and in two visions sees her dead brother Dinocrates relieved through her prayer.
The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity 6Anonymous · 203 · The editor records Secundulus's death, Felicity's premature childbirth in prison, Perpetua's rebuke of the tribune, and the martyrs' last meal as an agape.
Exhortation to Chastity 10Tertullian · ca. 208 · Widowhood is an opportunity for continence, which makes prayer and spiritual life clearer; if even marital intercourse dulls the Spirit, a second marriage does so still more.
Exhortation to Chastity 11Tertullian · ca. 208 · A remarried man still prays and offers yearly for his dead wife, and so stands before God with two wives, through a once-married clergy.
Against Marcion 4.1Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Opening his examination of Marcion's gospel, Tertullian turns Marcion's Antitheses against him: the Creator himself foretold a new law and covenant, and contrasts in his works point to one God, not two.
Against Marcion 4.13Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Christ's preaching on the mountain, his night of prayer, the choice of twelve apostles, the renaming of Peter, and the crowds from Tyre all correspond to the Creator's prophecies and figures.
Against Marcion 4.26Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The Lord's Prayer, the teaching on asking and knocking, the casting out of demons “by the finger of God,” and the blessing of those who hear God's word all point to the Creator as the Father to whom Christ taught his disciples to pray.
Against Marcion 4.36Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The parables of the persistent widow and of the Pharisee and the publican, the rich young ruler, and the blind man who called Jesus “son of David” all show that Christ taught prayer to, and obedience toward, the Creator, and was truly David's descendant.
On the Veiling of Virgins 17Tertullian · ca. 208–213 · Tertullian warns married women against token head-coverings, citing Arabian women, a sister's vision of an angel, and the ostrich, and closes with a blessing.
On the Soul 51Tertullian · ca. 210 · Death separates the whole soul from the body at once; reports of corpses that seem to move are signs from God, not proof that part of the soul remains.
On Flight in Persecution 1Tertullian · ca. 208–213 · Answering Fabius, who asked whether Christians may flee in persecution, Tertullian first argues that persecution comes by God's will, as the winnowing and testing of his servants, since it makes them better.
On Flight in Persecution 2Tertullian · ca. 208–213 · The devil's iniquity is only the instrument of persecution, not its author: as Job, Peter, the Lord's Prayer, and Paul's thorn show, Satan can do nothing to God's servants except by God's permission.
On Flight in Persecution 8Tertullian · ca. 208–213 · Christ withdrew from danger only until his teaching was complete; then he faced his Passion, and in Gethsemane, though his flesh was weak, he submitted to the Father's will, as Christians should.
On Fasting 7Tertullian · ca. 210–220 · Examples from Israel, Hezekiah, Nineveh, Ahab, Hannah, and Daniel show fasting reconciling God, averting danger, and winning knowledge of mysteries.
On Fasting 10Tertullian · ca. 210–220 · Against the claim that stations must end at the ninth hour, Tertullian argues from the hours of prayer in Acts, the Lord's death and burial, and Moses, Joshua, Saul, and Daniel for later stations.
On Monogamy 10Tertullian · ca. 210–217 · A widow is even more bound to her dead husband than a divorced wife to hers: she prays and offers for him, will rise with him, and to take another man would divide her heart between two husbands.
On Modesty 19Tertullian · ca. 210–220 · Neither Revelation's call to Jezebel nor 1 John's promises of cleansing grant pardon for adultery after baptism; John distinguishes daily sins, forgiven through Christ, from deadly sins such as murder, idolatry, apostasy, adultery, and sexual immorality.
Against Praxeas 23Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · At Lazarus' tomb and in the voice from heaven, Son and Father speak to each other, the Son on earth and the Father in heaven; they are two persons, not one God changing roles, and it was the Son, not the Father, who was betrayed and glorified.
On the Crown 3Tertullian · 211 · Many church practices rest on tradition and custom rather than written Scripture: the baptismal renunciation, triple immersion, milk and honey, the dawn Eucharist, offerings for the dead, not kneeling on Sundays and at Eastertide, and the sign of the cross.
To Scapula 2Tertullian · 212 · Christians worship the one God, hold that religion must not be compelled, pray for the emperor to their God, and are loyal and peaceable subjects who leave vengeance to God.
To Scapula 4Tertullian · 212 · Tertullian urges Scapula not to fight against God, citing lenient governors, Christian healings of pagans, the favor of Severus, the rain miracle under Marcus Aurelius, and the blameless life of Christians.
Eclogae on Exodus-Judges, column 575Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Numbers 16–22: the censers; tithes and the priests' poverty; Moses' hidden grave; Israel wars by prayer, Balaam by curses; God, good by essence, cannot work evil.
Fragments on Genesis, column 55Origen · ca. 220-254 · Fatalism makes prayer pointless; the one who foretells an event, like a prophetic book about Judas, is not its cause.
Fragments on Genesis, column 119Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Gen 24–25: silent prayer; Isaac's withdrawal and contemplation; Keturah's descendants, the Midianites, and Jethro as Abraham's descendant.
Fragments on Luke, column 353Origen · ca. 220-254 · Martha and Mary stand for action and contemplation, or for Jewish and free believers; the Lord's Prayer and the parable of the friend at midnight are expounded.
Fragment on Matthew 7:6Origen · ca. 220-254 · Asking, seeking, and knocking are read as prayer, learning the way of virtue, and works, by which the hidden sense of Scripture is opened.
Fragments on Proverbs, column 187Origen · ca. 220-254 · The one blown about by false teaching shepherds the wind; the virtues are the soul's secret bread; true friendship with God replaces the enmity of sin, and the fear of the Lord adds days of wisdom.
Fragments on Proverbs, column 225Origen · ca. 220-254 · Life is a sea battle against the demons, won with God as pilot through prayer and fasting; the wise must not neglect to teach and to rescue those being led to death.
Fragments on Proverbs, column 231Origen · ca. 220-254 · God reveals mysteries to the obedient; rulers of their passions must not drink the heretics' sour wine; the penitent are to drink the Lord's vineyard; the humble take the last place.
Fragments on Proverbs, column 247Origen · ca. 220-254 · Whoever shares with the thief, the devil, hates his own soul; sins must be confessed; the angels set over the nations lead us; the valiant woman of Prov 31 is the soul that conquers the enemy and spins the threads of contemplation.
PG 12:1079 (Ps 1 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Origen tells Ambrose of his reluctance to write on Scripture, asks for his prayers, and gives the Hebrew teacher’s parable of the locked rooms and scattered keys.
PG 12:1087 (Ps 1 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Meditating on the law day and night means practicing it, so that the perfect man’s every action is prayer; Aquila’s “transplanted” tree is Christ, rooted in the Father, or the Savior’s soul taken to paradise.
PG 12:1123 (Ps 3 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · On Ps 3:4 Origen asks why the prayer is reported after the thanksgiving, and explains the saints’ “cry” as the intense, intelligible voice of the soul, uttered by the Spirit and by the Savior himself.
PG 12:1135 (Ps 4 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · God hears the saint while he is still calling; “calling upon the Lord” belongs only to the righteous, like Samuel, whose works say “Lord”; Christ is “the righteousness” of the righteous; Scripture calls the trials of the saints “affliction,” those of sinners “scourges.”
PG 12:1141 (Ps 4 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · The heavy-hearted are slow disciples and those who seek the falsehood of antichrist; the “cry” God hears is the soul’s silent voice; “be angry” in Ps 4:4 may be imperative or indicative, and anger may be a chosen passion or an involuntary first movement.
PG 12:1167 (Ps 4–5 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · The end of Psalm 4 (the true bread; the Hebrew “from the time of” the harvest; Christ or the saint dwelling “alone” in hope) and the beginning of Psalm 5: only one whose King and God the Lord truly is can pray its words.
PG 12:1175 (Ps 6 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · On Ps 6:4–8: God turns and rescues the soul; in death, God’s enemy, there is no remembrance of him; the weary groaning and the bed washed with tears (applied to the chaste who weep over past sins); anger blinds the mind; demons always work lawlessness, humans sometimes, angels never.
PG 12:1195 (Ps 9 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · The end of LXX Psalm 9 (Ps 10:9–18): God “punishes” by breaking the sinner’s arm, freeing him from sin; Christ reigns until his enemies become friends; the land of the Lord is the contemplation of creation; God hears the desire of the poor, which is effective prayer.
PG 12:1225 (Ps 17 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · On Ps 18:2–6 (LXX 17:3–7): the titles of God as wall, helper, champion and horn of salvation (Christ, the horn of Zechariah’s song); prayer with praise; the pangs and snares of death that surrounded Christ but could not hold him; God hears from his temple, which is Christ.
PG 12:1245 (Ps 18–19 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · End of Ps 18 LXX (19):10–15 (pure fear, hidden faults, the meditation of the heart) and beginning of Ps 19 LXX (20): the afflicted are heard.
PG 12:1247 (Ps 19 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Ps 19 LXX (20):4–9: the burnt offering made fat, salvation as the Son and the cross, and the fall of the opposing powers.
PG 12:1283 (Ps 26–27 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Beginning of Ps 27 LXX (28): crying aloud in secret prayer, God speaking within the heart, and the pit (cistern) as the cold place of sin and captivity.
PG 12:1285 (Ps 27 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Ps 27 LXX (28):2–3: Christ as the holy temple, the grades of prayer (1 Tim 2:1), the lifting of hands as godly actions, and the righteous among sinners.
PG 12:1457 (Ps 52–53 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · End of Ps 52 LXX (53) (who is a men-pleaser; salvation out of Zion) and Ps 53 LXX (54): the structure of the prayer and its thanksgiving, and the Father and the Son as helpers.
PG 12:1459 (Ps 53–54 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · End of Ps 53 LXX (54) and beginning of Ps 54 LXX (55): bold prayer, “musing” as prayer, and the devil’s powers troubling the heart of Jesus before his death.
PG 12:1475 (Ps 59–60 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · End of Ps 59 LXX (60) (the rejection of the Jews after Christ’s coming, the wine of compunction, the sign of the sealed) and beginning of Ps 60 LXX (61): the soul that feels its lack cries aloud, listless in mortal life.
PG 12:1595 (Ps 118 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Psalm 119:56–70 (LXX 118): the face of God as the stamp of his substance, the cords of linked sins (David, Cain), and prayer at midnight.
PG 12:1615 (Ps 118 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Psalm 119:143–152 (LXX 118): commandments that comfort in affliction, understanding before knowledge, the righteous man's great cry, and drawing near to God who draws near.
PG 12:1621 (Ps 118 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Psalm 119:166–170 (LXX 118): the prayer that draws near to God at the last letter of the psalm, drawing near by the hidden inner man through Christ, and the request that comes before the Lord.
PG 12:1645 (Ps 132–133 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Psalm 133 (LXX 132) and Psalm 134 (LXX 133): the ointment as the Holy Spirit, Hermon and the tradition of the rebel angels, baptism as dew, and hands lifted in prayer.
PG 12:1659 (Ps 139–141 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on the end of Psalm 140 (LXX 139), on Psalm 141 (LXX 140) and on Psalm 142:1–3 (LXX 141): seeing God face to face, prayer as incense, the sinner's oil as almsgiving for show, and the snares hidden in the virtues.
Refutation of All Heresies 5.9.18Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The Euphrates is the mouth, and the water above the firmament is the living water Jesus offers.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.21.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Essenes pray and sing hymns before speaking at dawn, then work until the fifth hour.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.21.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · They eat bread and one dish in silence, with blessing and hymns before and after.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.23.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The initiate swears to revere God, wrong no one, hate no one but pray for enemies, and be faithful to rulers, since authority comes from God.
Fragment on 1 Corinthians (Jenkins § 34, part 1)Origen · ca. 226-254 · Origen argues from Moses at Sinai and the priest's question to David that married people should abstain for a time before prayer, and much more before receiving the eucharistic bread.
Fragment on 1 Corinthians (Jenkins § 34, part 2)Origen · ca. 226-254 · Origen explains that refusing the marital debt without agreement is “defrauding,” that abstinence belongs to times of prayer, fasting and menstruation, and that marriage between believers is a gift of the one God against Marcion's prohibition of marriage.
Fragment 68 on John 9:31Origen · ca. 226-254 · On John 9:31: the claim that God does not hear sinners is no doctrine of Scripture; God hears those who turn to repentance, though he may not grant sinners such works as Christ's.
Commentary on John 1.89Origen · ca. 230–248 · Origen prays for help and begins the commentary on John 1:1.
Commentary on John 6.10Origen · ca. 230–248 · Now that calm has returned, Origen resumes, praying for God's teaching within.
Commentary on John 6.11Origen · ca. 230–248 · Origen restarts Book 6 because the part dictated in Alexandria was lost.
Commentary on John 6.101Origen · ca. 230–248 · God hears the inner cry of prayer, as with Moses, not mere loudness.
Commentary on John 6.123Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Pharisees' self-praise, as in Luke's parable, showed they came to baptism as hypocrites full of venom.
Commentary on John 6.262Origen · ca. 230–248 · Luke alone adds that Jesus was praying when heaven opened and the Spirit came down.
Commentary on John 10.2Origen · ca. 230–248 · Origen tells his patron that the number ten is privileged in Scripture and prays that God will bless this tenth volume.
Commentary on John 10.131Origen · ca. 230–248 · Praying for insight, Origen begins with John: Jerusalem, the great King's city, is built on a height to which the tribes go up.
Commentary on John 10.218Origen · ca. 230–248 · The apostles prayed at the temple because they knew its God was theirs.
Commentary on John 13.5Origen · ca. 230–248 · No one receives God's gifts without asking; even the Son is told in Psalm 2 to ask.
Commentary on John 13.6Origen · ca. 230–248 · The woman, a figure of heterodox readers of Scripture, is persuaded to ask for the better water.
Commentary on John 13.22Origen · ca. 230–248 · We must cultivate hunger and thirst for God, as the psalmist longs like a deer for water.
Commentary on John 13.85Origen · ca. 230–248 · In the fullness of time, true worship will be in spirit and truth, beyond even the church's present forms.
Commentary on John 13.87Origen · ca. 230–248 · The first “hour” is worship after this bodily life; the second is the growing worship of those being perfected now.
Commentary on John 13.88Origen · ca. 230–248 · Even now one can worship in spirit and truth, while outwardly remaining in the church for the sake of simpler believers.
Commentary on John 13.97Origen · ca. 230–248 · Heracleon: spiritual people worship neither creation nor the Demiurge but the Father of truth, and the woman is counted among them.
Commentary on John 13.98Origen · ca. 230–248 · “Not on this mountain” rejects heretical “gnostic” worship; “not in Jerusalem” means the perfect will surpass even the church's ordinary worship.
Commentary on John 13.99Origen · ca. 230–248 · Like angels, the perfect worship better than in “Jerusalem,” though they may accommodate themselves to others for their sake.
Commentary on John 13.100Origen · ca. 230–248 · When the hour comes, the worshiper, having become a son, worships the Father with boldness. Next lemma: John 4:22.
Commentary on John 13.109Origen · ca. 230–248 · True worshipers worship the Father in spirit and truth, not in flesh and figures.
Commentary on John 13.110Origen · ca. 230–248 · Those enslaved to the letter worship only in figures and are not true worshipers.
Commentary on John 13.111Origen · ca. 230–248 · A true worshiper may sometimes perform outward rites to lead others to the truth, as Paul did.
Commentary on John 13.112Origen · ca. 230–248 · True worship is present now in the pledge of the Spirit and will be complete when the whole Spirit is received.
Commentary on John 13.113Origen · ca. 230–248 · Now we worship as through a mirror; in the coming hour worship will be face to face.
Commentary on John 13.119Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Father seeks worshipers through the Son, who cleanses and teaches them.
Commentary on John 13.146Origen · ca. 230–248 · Only the Son reveals the Father; through him we learn to worship in Spirit and truth, like the angels led by Christ, high priest after Melchizedek.
Commentary on John 13.148Origen · ca. 230–248 · Heracleon says true worshipers, being of the same nature as the Father, are spirit and worship spiritually.
Commentary on John 13.403Origen · ca. 230–248 · Departed saints care for the people, as Jeremiah is said to pray for them in 2 Maccabees.
Commentary on John 19.28Origen · ca. 230–248 · No one in the Old Testament prays to God as “Father”; that belongs to the spirit of adoption Christ gives, though the perfect may have known it in secret.
Commentary on John 20.1Origen · ca. 230–248 · Book 20 opens with a prayer, addressed to Ambrose, for full understanding from the Son of God.
Commentary on John 20.151Origen · ca. 230–248 · God's sons, like the Father, let their love shine and their prayer fall like rain even on enemies.
Commentary on John 20.285Origen · ca. 230–248 · Knowing how weak our faith is, we should ask Christ the physician to unveil our eyes and grant the gift of faith.
Commentary on John 28.6Origen · ca. 230–248 · Reaching the twenty-eighth book, Origen prays to God through Christ for true understanding.
Commentary on John 28.24Origen · ca. 230–248 · Jesus lifts his eyes to his disciples, who are not “below,” and lifts his mind to the Father in prayer.
Commentary on John 28.25Origen · ca. 230–248 · Imitating Christ, we should pray with the soul's eyes raised above earthly concerns.
Commentary on John 28.26Origen · ca. 230–248 · The tax collector's downcast eyes suit the penitent, not everyone, just as godly grief must be in proportion.
Commentary on John 28.27Origen · ca. 230–248 · Each should examine himself before communion and before lifting his eyes in prayer.
Commentary on John 28.28Origen · ca. 230–248 · Anyone who should not lift his eyes should also stand far from the temple.
Commentary on John 28.30Origen · ca. 230–248 · As not all should abstain from communion, not all should keep their eyes lowered.
Commentary on John 28.31Origen · ca. 230–248 · One sins by lifting or not lifting the eyes out of season.
Commentary on John 28.32Origen · ca. 230–248 · The tax collector rightly lowered his eyes; the disciple is told to lift them.
Commentary on John 28.33Origen · ca. 230–248 · The prophets too lift their eyes to God.
Commentary on John 28.34Origen · ca. 230–248 · In Susanna, the wicked elders turned their eyes from heaven, while the trusting Susanna looked up to it.
Commentary on John 28.35Origen · ca. 230–248 · Susanna could look up with boldness; the elders, had they repented, should have prayed like the tax collector.
Commentary on John 28.36Origen · ca. 230–248 · One who rightly lifts his eyes may also lift holy hands in prayer without anger.
Commentary on John 28.37Origen · ca. 230–248 · Raised eyes (contemplation) and raised hands (good deeds) defeat invisible enemies, as Moses' hands defeated Amalek.
Commentary on John 28.38Origen · ca. 230–248 · End of the comment on Jesus lifting his eyes.
Commentary on John 28.39Origen · ca. 230–248 · God answers the righteous while they are still speaking; the Savior was heard even before he spoke.
Commentary on John 28.40Origen · ca. 230–248 · What is granted to the Savior exceeds the promise to the righteous.
Commentary on John 28.41Origen · ca. 230–248 · Heard before he prayed, Jesus gave thanks instead of praying.
Commentary on John 28.42Origen · ca. 230–248 · His thanksgiving both thanked the Father and led the crowd to believe he was sent by God.
Commentary on John 28.48Origen · ca. 230–248 · He thanked the Father for this and all earlier answers, for the crowd's sake.
Commentary on John 28.74Origen · ca. 230–248 · The thanksgiving was for the crowd's sake.
Commentary on John 32.1Origen · ca. 230–248 · Book 32 opens: Origen prays to travel the Gospel's road to its end.
Commentary on John 32.2Origen · ca. 230–248 · Origen compares his thirty-second book to a stage of Israel's journey, led by Christ as the pillar of cloud.
On Prayer 2.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen tells Ambrose and Tatiana that explaining prayer rightly is humanly impossible; even Paul confessed that we do not know how to pray as we ought.
On Prayer 2.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen distinguishes what we should pray for, such as heavenly things and laborers for the harvest, from the right disposition in prayer, such as reconciliation, purity, and self-control in marriage.
On Prayer 2.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · Paul confessed he did not know how to pray as he ought, but the Spirit intercedes for the saints with groanings too deep for words.
On Prayer 2.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · The mind cannot pray rightly unless the Spirit prays first; so a disciple, though trained in Jewish prayer, asked Jesus to teach them to pray as John had.
On Prayer 2.5Origen · ca. 233–234 · Spiritual prayers written in Scripture, such as Hannah's and the psalms titled “prayer,” are full of the doctrines of God's wisdom.
On Prayer 2.6Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen prays for the Spirit's help before beginning his treatise on prayer.
On Prayer 3.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen begins by noting that the Greek word for prayer, euchē, first appears in Scripture as Jacob's vow at Bethel.
On Prayer 3.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · The word euchē means a vow, but Scripture also uses it for ordinary prayer, as when Pharaoh asks Moses to pray against the frogs.
On Prayer 3.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen traces where the word for prayer occurs in the story of the plagues of Egypt.
On Prayer 4.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Proseuchē, the usual word for prayer, can also be joined with a vow, as in Hannah's prayer for a son.
On Prayer 4.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Hannah both prayed and made a vow; her promise to give her son to God was a vow like Jephthah's, not a prayer in the strict sense.
On Prayer 5.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Almost no one who believes in God's providence rejects prayer, but some heretics who reject baptism and the Eucharist have been persuaded that one should not pray.
On Prayer 5.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · The first objection: God already knows what we need and cares for us like a father, so prayer seems unnecessary.
On Prayer 5.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · The second objection: if God has preordained everything, praying for what will happen anyway is as foolish as praying for the sun to rise.
On Prayer 5.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · A further objection: if Scripture says some are sinners from the womb and others chosen before birth, as Jacob and Esau were, prayer seems to change nothing.
On Prayer 5.5Origen · ca. 233–234 · The objection continues: if the elect are chosen before creation and Josiah and Judas were foretold, prayer cannot change God's unchangeable purpose.
On Prayer 5.6Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen quotes Ambrose's two questions: if God foreknows everything, and if his will cannot change, is prayer not vain?
On Prayer 6.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen distinguishes things moved from outside, things moved by their nature, animals that move themselves, and rational beings who move by their own reason.
On Prayer 6.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Denying free will is absurd: we experience ourselves choosing, and everyone praises and blames others as responsible for their acts.
On Prayer 6.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · God foreknows our free choices from the creation of the world, but his foreknowledge does not cause them; it lets him fit each choice into the government of the universe.
On Prayer 6.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · God foresees how each person will pray and orders in advance whether and how to answer, even which angel to send to help each one.
On Prayer 7.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Even the sun and stars have free will and praise God; but since they are wise and steady, nothing could turn them from their course, so praying for sunrise is not a fair analogy.
On Prayer 8.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Just as children require a woman, some things are obtained only by praying rightly: without babbling, anger, or unforgiveness, and for heavenly rather than earthly things.
On Prayer 8.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Even apart from being answered, prayer benefits the one who prays, because recalling God's presence restrains him from sin and moves him to good.
On Prayer 9.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · From 1 Timothy: men should pray with holy hands, free of anger and distraction, and women with modesty in soul and body, adorned with good works.
On Prayer 9.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Lifting the eyes and soul to God in prayer transforms the one who prays into God's image and makes the soul spiritual.
On Prayer 9.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · Coming to prayer free of grudges, as the prophet and Jesus command, already gives us the best of gifts.
On Prayer 10.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · One who prays rightly, content with God's providence and without secret murmuring, will hear God say “Here I am,” as Isaiah promises.
On Prayer 10.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · The one who prays rightly shares in the Word of God, the high priest and advocate who prays with those who pray; Jesus' parables urge us to pray always and without shame.
On Prayer 11.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Christ is not alone in praying with us: the angels, as Raphael shows in Tobit, and the departed saints, as Jeremiah shows in 2 Maccabees, pray for us too.
On Prayer 11.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · The departed saints, perfected in love of neighbor, care for those still struggling on earth even more than they did in this life, as Christ counts believers' sufferings as his own.
On Prayer 11.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · Angels who ministered to Jesus on earth still serve him in gathering and building the church, as the angels of the churches in Revelation show.
On Prayer 11.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · The angels help those who pray, much as God may bring a physician to a sick man who prays, or a generous rich man to a poor man in need.
On Prayer 11.5Origen · ca. 233–234 · God, who numbers every hair, brings angels to help those who pray; each believer's guardian angel prays and works with him.
On Prayer 12.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · The prayers of the saints are powerful, like light and like arrows, weakening and wounding the evil spirits that try to bind us in sin.
On Prayer 12.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · To pray without ceasing is to make one's whole life a prayer by joining it to good works, while also praying at least three times a day, as well as at night.
On Prayer 13.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · If Jesus himself prayed and received what he asked through prayer, none of us should neglect to pray.
On Prayer 13.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Scripture gives many examples of answered prayer: Hannah, Hezekiah, Mordecai and Esther, Judith, the three youths, Daniel, and Jonah.
On Prayer 13.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · Every believer can recount answered prayers: barren souls made fruitful, spiritual enemies scattered, temptations passed through unharmed, and sinners rescued from death through repentance.
On Prayer 13.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · The deliverances in Scripture are types of spiritual gifts; Christians should pray not for earthly things but for fruitfulness of soul and deliverance from spiritual enemies.
On Prayer 13.5Origen · ca. 233–234 · As Samuel's prayer brought thunder and rain and Elijah's opened the heavens, the saints' prayers now bring the rain of grace to souls in the harvest of the gospel.
On Prayer 14.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · The unwritten saying “ask for great and heavenly things, and small and earthly ones will be added” means we should pray for the spiritual realities of which Scripture's stories are types.
On Prayer 14.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen distinguishes the four words of 1 Timothy 2:1: supplication asks for what is lacking, prayer glorifies God about greater things, intercession asks with boldness, and thanksgiving acknowledges gifts received.
On Prayer 14.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · Examples of supplication: Zechariah's prayer for a son, Moses' pleas for Israel, and the prayers of Mordecai and Esther.
On Prayer 14.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · Examples of prayer in the strict sense, offered with glorification: Azarias, Tobit, Hannah, Habakkuk, and Jonah.
On Prayer 14.5Origen · ca. 233–234 · Examples of intercession, made with boldness, are the Spirit's intercession, Joshua's command to the sun, and Samson's last words; Jesus' thanks to the Father is an example of thanksgiving.
On Prayer 14.6Origen · ca. 233–234 · Supplication, intercession, and thanksgiving may be offered to people too, especially to saints; still more should we thank Christ and intercede with him, as Stephen did.
On Prayer 15.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen argues that prayer in the strict sense should be addressed only to the Father, not to Christ, but always through Christ the High Priest.
On Prayer 15.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Prayer is to be addressed to the Father, but always through and in the name of Jesus, as he taught.
On Prayer 15.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · To the objection that angels are told to worship Christ, Origen answers that Scripture also says kings will bow down to the church, so worship in this sense is not the same as prayer.
On Prayer 15.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen imagines Christ saying: do not pray to me but to the Father, through me as your High Priest and brother.
On Prayer 16.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Christians should not be divided by praying some to the Father and some to the Son, but should pray to God through Christ, serving him out of love rather than fear.
On Prayer 16.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Bodily blessings follow spiritual gifts like a shadow follows a body; God gives the spiritual gifts, and the earthly ones come with them.
On Prayer 16.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · The answered prayers of Hannah, Hezekiah, Esther, Judith, the three youths, Daniel, and Jonah were more spiritual than bodily deliverances.
On Prayer 17.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Like shadows that vary with the sun's position, earthly blessings may or may not accompany spiritual gifts; the one who has the light does not care about the shadow.
On Prayer 17.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Whoever has glimpsed the soul's true beauty, the unshakable kingdom, and the heavenly powers will despise earthly beauty, rank, and power, and pray for heavenly things.
On Prayer 18.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Having treated prayer in general, Origen turns to the Lord's Prayer.
On Prayer 18.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen sets out the Lord's Prayer as given in Matthew and in Luke.
On Prayer 18.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen suggests that the prayers in Matthew and Luke, given on different occasions, may be two different prayers with parts in common; Mark has none.
On Prayer 19.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Before the Lord's Prayer Jesus warns against praying to be seen, like the hypocrites, or babbling, like the Gentiles.
On Prayer 19.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Jesus condemns praying for human glory; those who pray or give to be seen already have their reward, as the rich man had his good things in this life.
On Prayer 19.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · Those who follow the broad, crooked road of pleasure, even praying at feasts while drunk, are the ones who pray “at the street corners,” not on Christ's narrow and straight way.
On Prayer 20.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · The saint prays not in the “synagogue” or on street corners to be seen by men, but in the church, on the narrow way, to appear before God.
On Prayer 20.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Hypocrites are actors of righteousness in their own theater; the true worshiper shuts the door of the senses in the inner room of the heart, where the Father and the Son dwell.
On Prayer 21.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Prayer should be speech about God, not babbling; to babble is to ask God for bodily and earthly things, as the Gentiles do.
On Prayer 21.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Many words mean many and divided things, as evil and falsehood are many while good and truth are one; the Father knows what his children truly need.
On Prayer 22.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · The Old Testament calls God Father and his people sons, but Origen finds no prayer there in which anyone addresses God as “Father.”
On Prayer 22.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Under the old covenant God's sons were like children under guardians; with Christ's coming believers receive the spirit of adoption and become God's children in truth.
On Prayer 22.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · Only true children of God, whose lives and hearts agree with their words, can rightly call God “Father,” just as only a life of obedience truly says “Jesus is Lord.”
On Prayer 22.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · The saints are an image of Christ, who is the image of God, and so bear the likeness of sonship; the Son came to destroy the devil's seed in sinners so they may become God's children.
On Prayer 22.5Origen · ca. 233–234 · “Our Father in heaven” should be said by our whole life, lived as citizens of heaven, not only at set times of prayer.
On Prayer 23.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · “In heaven” does not mean that God is enclosed in a place; biblical language of place, like Jesus' going to the Father, must be understood spiritually.
On Prayer 23.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · The Son's “going to the Father” is not a movement from place to place but his return from his humble state to his own fullness, an ascent of the mind rather than of the body.
On Prayer 23.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · God “walks” and “dwells” in the saints and in Christ; “heaven” may mean the saints or Christ himself, the Father's throne, with the church as his footstool.
On Prayer 23.5Origen · ca. 233–234 · “In heaven” sets God's being apart from all creatures, though they receive his glory and power; Scripture's language of place must be read spiritually.
On Prayer 24.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen asks how a human being can pray that God's name be made holy, and what God's “name” and its hallowing mean.
On Prayer 24.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · A name expresses a person's distinctive quality; God's unchanging name is “He who is,” and to hallow it is for our conception of God to become holy.
On Prayer 24.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · Scripture's “name of God” means his distinctive quality: it is taken in vain when misapplied, and it is called upon by teachers whose words refresh hearers like rain and dew.
On Prayer 24.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · To exalt God's name together is to reach a shared true knowledge of God; one exalts God by dedicating one's own soul to him as a house.
On Prayer 24.5Origen · ca. 233–234 · The Lord's Prayer uses imperatives that express wishes; Origen refutes Tatian, who wrongly took God's “Let there be light” as a prayer rather than a command.
On Prayer 25.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · The kingdom of God is within us; to pray “your kingdom come” is to ask that God's rule may grow and be perfected in our souls, displacing the rule of sin.
On Prayer 25.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · We keep praying “hallowed be your name” and “your kingdom come” because we grow toward perfection only by degrees, until God is all in all.
On Prayer 25.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · God's kingdom cannot coexist with sin's; if we put sin to death and bear the Spirit's fruit, Christ reigns in us until every enemy, even death, is defeated.
On Prayer 26.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Found only in Matthew, this petition asks that we on earth may do God's will as the heavenly beings do, and so become like them.
On Prayer 26.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · “As in heaven so on earth” may apply to all three petitions: God's name, kingdom, and will are already realized in heaven and are prayed for on earth.
On Prayer 26.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · Since evil spirits exist even “in the heavenly places,” one solution takes heaven to mean Christ and earth the church, which prays to do the Father's will as Christ did.
On Prayer 26.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · An objection from Christ's words “all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth” is met by applying them to the human nature of Christ, exalted and united with the divine Son.
On Prayer 26.5Origen · ca. 233–234 · Evil spirits are not truly “in heaven,” because where one belongs depends on the will, not on place; the saints on earth are heavenly, and the demons, though in the heavens, are earthly.
On Prayer 26.6Origen · ca. 233–234 · Whoever sins is “earth” and whoever does God's will is “heaven”; the petition asks that God's will transform all that is earthly until everything becomes heaven.
On Prayer 27.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen rejects the view that “daily bread” means bodily bread, since Jesus taught us to ask for heavenly and great things.
On Prayer 27.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Jesus taught in John 6 that the true bread from heaven is himself, the Word, which nourishes the inner man made in God's image.
On Prayer 27.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · In John 6 Jesus speaks of the bread from heaven both as the Father's gift and as himself, the bread of life.
On Prayer 27.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · Christ's flesh, the Word made flesh, is true food for the mature; when we eat and drink him, he dwells in us and we behold his glory.
On Prayer 27.5Origen · ca. 233–234 · As Paul says, milk is for spiritual infants and solid food for the mature; even Romans 14 on eating everything or only vegetables refers mainly to spiritual teaching.
On Prayer 27.6Origen · ca. 233–234 · Simple but sound teaching is better than brilliant teaching that denies that the Father of Jesus gave the law and the prophets; we should ask the Father for the living bread.
On Prayer 27.7Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen notes that the word translated “daily,” epiousios, seems coined by the evangelists, and derives it from ousia, “being”: the bread that sustains our being.
On Prayer 27.9Origen · ca. 233–234 · The “daily bread” is the Word of God, which passes into the soul's very being as food passes into the body, strengthening each according to his capacity and imparting immortality.
On Prayer 27.10Origen · ca. 233–234 · The daily bread is also the tree of life and the wisdom of God, the food of the angels, which the psalm calls “the bread of angels.”
On Prayer 27.11Origen · ca. 233–234 · Abraham's meal for the three visitors may figure how saints can nourish even angels with spiritual food, as Christ promises to dine with whoever opens the door to him.
On Prayer 27.12Origen · ca. 233–234 · Christ is food that makes us sons of God, while those who feed on the devil become like serpents; Peter's vision shows that the clean and unclean animals signify kinds of people, all of whom God can cleanse.
On Prayer 27.13Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen prefers his derivation of “daily” from “being” to one from “the coming day,” and explains that in Scripture “today” can mean this whole age and “yesterday” the past age.
On Prayer 27.14Origen · ca. 233–234 · The feasts, sabbaths, and jubilees of the law may be shadows of the ordering of whole ages, known fully only to God.
On Prayer 27.15Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen conjectures that the present age is the end of one “year” of ages, after which further ages will come in which God will show the riches of his grace.
On Prayer 27.16Origen · ca. 233–234 · Whoever glimpses God's vast ordering of the ages will not be petty about the present, but will prepare to receive the daily bread “today” and “each day,” and more than he can ask or imagine.
On Prayer 27.17Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen briefly notes that the bread is called “ours” because, as Paul says, all things belong to the saints.
On Prayer 28.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · The petition on debts recalls Paul's teaching that we owe others not only money but kind words, deeds, and above all love.
On Prayer 28.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · We owe duties to fellow Christians, to family, to fellow citizens, to all people, and even to our own body, soul, mind, and speech.
On Prayer 28.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · Widows, deacons, presbyters, and above all bishops have special debts to pay, as do husband and wife to each other; in this life no one is ever free of debt.
On Prayer 28.5Origen · ca. 233–234 · Every unpaid debt of duty is written on the soul as a bond against us, to be read at the judgment seat of Christ.
On Prayer 28.6Origen · ca. 233–234 · Remembering our own unpaid debts to God and others should make us gentle toward those who fail in their duties to us.
On Prayer 28.7Origen · ca. 233–234 · Whoever will not forgive will be treated like the unforgiving servant in the parable; we must forgive the repentant even seven times a day and seek the healing even of the unrepentant.
On Prayer 28.8Origen · ca. 233–234 · Everyone can forgive sins committed against himself; but only one who has received the Spirit, like the apostles, can forgive what God forgives and retain incurable sins.
On Prayer 28.9Origen · ca. 233–234 · As the law's priests could not offer sacrifice for adultery or murder, so the apostles and those like them, taught by the Spirit, know which sins can be forgiven and which must be retained.
On Prayer 28.10Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen criticizes clergy who claim they can forgive idolatry, adultery, and sexual immorality by their prayers, ignoring the “sin unto death,” and contrasts Job's care even over possible sins of thought.
On Prayer 29.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Since all human life is a time of testing, Origen asks how we can pray not to enter into temptation.
On Prayer 29.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Scripture teaches that all life on earth is a trial; God does not spare us temptation but keeps it within our strength, whether we wrestle against the flesh or, as the mature do, against spiritual powers.
On Prayer 29.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · God tests everyone, as Judith, the Psalms, and Acts all show, so the petition cannot mean escaping every test.
On Prayer 29.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · If the petition meant escaping all trials, the apostles, who suffered countless hardships, would have prayed in vain.
On Prayer 29.5Origen · ca. 233–234 · No condition of life is free from temptation: the poor may steal, the rich grow proud, and even Paul and Hezekiah were in danger of pride.
On Prayer 29.6Origen · ca. 233–234 · Poverty, wealth, and moderate means each bring their own temptations.
On Prayer 29.7Origen · ca. 233–234 · Health and sickness both bring temptations: the healthy to sins of the body, the sick to impure thoughts, impatience, and shame at bearing Christ's name.
On Prayer 29.8Origen · ca. 233–234 · Honor among men is also a temptation, leading the high born to pride and the low born to flattery that counterfeits love.
On Prayer 29.9Origen · ca. 233–234 · Since all life is a trial, we pray not to escape temptation but not to be overcome by it; Christ enters the net of temptation to call his bride out of it.
On Prayer 29.10Origen · ca. 233–234 · Even reading Scripture is a temptation: many have misread it and invented a false Father or Son, worshiping a figment instead of the true God.
On Prayer 29.11Origen · ca. 233–234 · We pray not to escape temptation but not to be overcome; Origen then asks how the good God can be said to “lead” anyone into temptation.
On Prayer 29.12Origen · ca. 233–234 · Paul says God “gave up” sinners to their desires; this refutes those who divide the Godhead into a just God of the law and a merely good Father who never judges.
On Prayer 29.13Origen · ca. 233–234 · God governs each free soul toward its eternal life, sometimes letting sinners have their fill of sin so that they come to hate it, as he gave Israel quail until they loathed it.
On Prayer 29.14Origen · ca. 233–234 · God gave Israel meat until they were sick of it, so that they would be cured of their craving; so he may let sinners be sated with sin until they hate it and return to heavenly food.
On Prayer 29.16Origen · ca. 233–234 · God's hardening of Pharaoh and his snares are just and remedial; we should pray to do nothing that would deserve being led by God's judgment into temptation.
On Prayer 29.17Origen · ca. 233–234 · Temptations reveal what is hidden in our souls, even from ourselves, so that we can recognize our evils and give thanks for our good.
On Prayer 29.18Origen · ca. 233–234 · Examples from Genesis show that temptation reveals what was already in the heart: Eve's weakness, Cain's wickedness, Ham's impiety, Esau's profanity, and Joseph's self-control.
On Prayer 29.19Origen · ca. 233–234 · Between trials we should prepare for every possible temptation; God will make up what our weakness lacks.
On Prayer 30.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Luke's shorter prayer includes “deliver us from evil”; God delivers us not by removing trials but by helping us overcome them, afflicted but not crushed.
On Prayer 30.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · God delivered Job from the evil one not by sparing him temptation but by keeping him faithful through two great trials; the threefold victory over the tempter was reserved for Christ.
On Prayer 30.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · We should pray not to be conquered by temptation, quenching the evil one's fiery darts with the shield of faith and the living water of saving thoughts.
On Prayer 31.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen turns to practical matters of prayer: the disposition of soul, bodily posture, place, direction, and time.
On Prayer 31.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Before prayer one should collect oneself, put away distractions and grudges, and ordinarily pray standing with hands outstretched and eyes raised, though the sick or busy may pray sitting, lying, or unseen.
On Prayer 31.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · Kneeling is fitting when confessing sins; the “bowing of every knee” in heaven and earth to Jesus must be understood spiritually, since heavenly beings do not have bodily knees.
On Prayer 31.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · Any place can serve for prayer, but it is best to have a quiet, set place at home, free of past sin; Origen even suggests avoiding the place of marital intercourse.
On Prayer 31.5Origen · ca. 233–234 · Prayer in the assembly of believers is especially valuable, because angels, the power of Christ, and the spirits of the saints, living and departed, are present with the church.
On Prayer 31.6Origen · ca. 233–234 · Where a congregation is full of unrepentant sinners, it becomes an assembly of wicked men and evil angels, from which God turns away his eyes.
On Prayer 31.7Origen · ca. 233–234 · Communities that abandon God's law are abandoned by him and his angels, as Jerusalem was, and like the barren fig tree lose even the little faith they had.
On Prayer 32.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Christians should face east when they pray, as a symbol of the soul turning to the rising of the true light, even indoors.
On Prayer 33.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen outlines the parts of prayer: begin with praise of God through Christ in the Holy Spirit, then thanksgiving, confession, requests for heavenly things, and end with praise.
On Prayer 33.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · An example of praise is Psalm 104, which glorifies God as Creator.
On Prayer 33.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · An example of thanksgiving is David's prayer after God's promise through Nathan.
On Prayer 33.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · Examples of confession come from the Psalms.
On Prayer 33.5Origen · ca. 233–234 · An example of petition comes from Psalm 28.
On Prayer 33.6Origen · ca. 233–234 · Prayer should begin and end with praise of the Father through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit.
On Prayer 34.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen closes by asking Ambrose and Tatiana to read his work with indulgence and to pray that he may later write more worthily on prayer.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 20Origen · 235 · This life is a place of affliction for the soul; the psalm assures us that God knows whether we have been faithful to him.
Homily on Isaiah 4Origen · ca. 235–250 · Origen returns to Isaiah's vision: God's beginning and end are hidden, the seraphim proclaim the threefold holiness, God's glory fills the earth through holy lives, and the burning coal from the altar is Christ's purifying word.
Address of Thanksgiving 4Gregory Thaumaturgus · ca. 238–245 · Only the Word can thank the Father worthily; Gregory thanks Origen, and his guardian angel who led him to Origen.
Address of Thanksgiving 19Gregory Thaumaturgus · ca. 238–245 · Gregory asks Origen to pray for him and commend him to God, that an angel may escort him and bring him back.
Homily on 1 Samuel 1.9Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Since Hannah’s “prayer” mostly does not address God, Origen argues that every righteous act done according to God counts as prayer, so that the righteous pray without ceasing, and reads the lifting of hands as lifting one’s deeds.
Homilies on Exodus 5.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · God protects those who follow his law: the pillar of cloud stands between them and the pursuing Egyptians, and the faithful are taught not to doubt but to cry to God in the heart.
Homilies on Exodus 11.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Moses on the hilltop with raised hands figures the law understood on high and prayer lifted to God, by which the people from the Gentiles conquers, while the people that keeps Moses' hands on the earth is defeated.
Homilies on Ezekiel 7.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Jerome's translation in the 380s) · The oil, incense, and bread set before idols are prayer, baptismal teaching, and the Scriptures, misused by heretics such as Marcion, Valentinus, and Basilides.
Homilies on Ezekiel 14.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Jerome's translation in the 380s) · As certain priestly foods were eaten only in the holy place, Christ alone eats the bread of the Father’s nature, though he also invites believers to dine with him and gives them daily bread.
Homilies on Joshua 9.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · After the victory over Ai, Joshua builds an altar of whole stones; believers are living stones built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets and on Christ, and those devoted to prayer form the altar.
Homilies on Joshua 9.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The whole stones untouched by iron are those free of the darts of desire and of strife, perhaps the apostles praying with one accord, and believers too become stones of the altar by concord in prayer.
Homilies on Joshua 16.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The fathers who received their inheritance through Moses still fight for Christians, helping them by their prayers, and the church’s weapons are prayer, Scripture, faith, and good works.
Homilies on Judges 3.6Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Ehud's right-handed deed shows that God sends heavenly powers, as at the exodus and against Sennacherib, to free those who cry to him in tearful repentance.
Homilies on Leviticus 6.6Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The lesser priests' simpler garments show that the name of priest does not guarantee the merit of the high priesthood; the omitted linen breeches signify teachers' restraint before unworthy hearers, and the high priest's work is to learn from God, teach, and pray.
Homilies on Leviticus 13.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The pure frankincense on the loaves is pure prayer, the sabbath is the soul's rest in God, and the 'holy place' where the loaves are eaten is a pure soul, which alone may receive the Lord's body worthily.
Homilies on Numbers 5.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · As the priests covered the holy things before the Kohathites carried them, the church's teachers hand on mysteries whose meaning most believers practice without understanding, such as kneeling, praying toward the east, the Eucharist, and the rites of baptism.
Homilies on Numbers 9.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Moses and Aaron, standing for the law and for intercession, saved all Israel; when the law moves us to repentance and prayer, God's anger is turned away.
Homilies on Numbers 10.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Priests must keep both the outward commands and the hidden mysteries within the veil, and in each person the inner sanctuary is the heart, where prayer, the knowledge of the Trinity, and God's law written on the mind are to be guarded.
Homilies on Numbers 11.9Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The firstfruits of almsgiving are a merciful heart, and the firstfruits of the sacrifice of praise are prayer offered with a collected, attentive mind, which the angels present to Christ.
Homilies on Numbers 14.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · God did not make evil but uses it, as with Joseph's brothers, Balak, Judas, and the devil, to test and crown the virtuous, while each person by free choice becomes a vessel of honor or of dishonor.
Homilies on Numbers 23.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The first of God’s festivals is the perpetual morning and evening sacrifice, fulfilled by constant prayer and avoidance of sin; Origen adds, from 1 Cor 7:5, that married intercourse interrupts it, so that only the perpetually continent offer it fully.
Homilies on Numbers 25.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Twelve thousand repentant Israelites defeat the Midianites who had earlier overcome a far larger sinful Israel, showing that righteousness, prayer, and repentance conquer; the death of Balaam confirms that his counsel caused Israel’s fall.
Homilies on Numbers 26.6Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · As the eastern tribes crossed the Jordan to help their brothers, so the holy fathers of old, not made perfect without us, help the church by their prayers, examples, and writings in the spiritual war that wins the heavenly inheritance under Jesus.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 3.8Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Every human being is weak and prone to fall, so we must pray the Lord to uphold us by his word and wisdom.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 7.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The righteous man, cursed or slandered, acts deaf and mute, leaving vengeance to God; if we heard God as we should, he would hear us as he heard Elijah and Samuel, and we would be “gods” and sons of God.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 7.9Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Enemies hold the penitent’s past against him, but he prays that God, who departs from some and remains with others, will not forsake him but help him in the fight against invisible enemies.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 9.10Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Prayer should be offered with tears at the remembrance of sins, asking God not to be silent but to answer, “Here I am.”
Homilies on Jeremiah 5.9Origen · ca. 240 · Passions such as anger are a veil over the soul's face; God does not hide his glory, but we hide it from ourselves until we put them away.
Homilies on Jeremiah 5.17Origen · ca. 240 · The devil, a fallen lion, wants to lay waste the soul by false teachings; we must repent in sackcloth and shelter in the church, where God delivers us.
Homilies on Jeremiah 6.1Origen · ca. 240 · God's eyes rest on faith and on every virtue, as they turn from unbelief and vice; whoever acquires the virtues receives the light of God's face.
Homilies on Jeremiah 10.8Origen · ca. 240 · Christ's earthly inheritance turned against him like a lion and was handed to the “beasts,” the hostile powers; if we too neglect God's law we face the same, but repentance brings us under the care of holy angels.
Homilies on Jeremiah 14.14Origen · ca. 240 · To pray for a share with the prophets and apostles is to ask to suffer as they did for rebuking sin; Origen alludes to a recent case of church discipline and warns his hearers not to listen to the slanders of the excommunicated.
Homilies on Jeremiah 18.10Origen · ca. 240 · The prayer of the righteous rises like incense to God, but the prayer of the wicked is incense “burned to vanity,” like Judas's prayer that became sin. [The rest of the homily is lost.]
Homilies on Jeremiah 19.10Origen · ca. 240 · Origen closes his (mostly lost) introduction by praying that Jesus will appear and teach the meaning of the passage read.
Homilies on Jeremiah 19.13Origen · ca. 240 · Pashhur threw Jeremiah down into a dungeon although there was an upper room in God's house; Scripture shows that saints receive prophets “upstairs,” and whoever keeps Christ's Passover must go up to the upper room, where Christ gives his body and blood.
Instructions 2.8Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · Penitents should pray, stay close to the church, and do public penance; Commodian admits he was once one of them.
Instructions 2.32Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · Christians should not mourn their dead children with pagan display but pray for them, trusting the resurrection, as Abraham gave up Isaac without lamenting.
Instructions 2.35Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · Commodian rebukes those who chatter in church during the readings and the eucharistic prayer.
Instructions 2.38Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · Prayer is heard when joined to justice and mercy to the needy.
On the Trinity 14Novatian · ca. 240–250 · A series of questions shows that a mere man could not have made the world, come from heaven, be present everywhere when called upon, be the object of hope, precede John the Baptist, or give life as the Father does.
Commentary on the Song of Songs 1.89Origen · ca. 240–245 (Rufinus's translation ca. 410) · Read as a drama, the first verse shows a bride who has received gifts from her absent bridegroom and prays to his Father that he would come and kiss her.
Commentary on the Song of Songs 1.92Origen · ca. 240–245 (Rufinus's translation ca. 410) · The liturgical kiss of peace is an image of the Word's kiss; in the drama, the bridegroom appears while the bride is still praying, and she turns to praise his breasts and ointments.
Commentary on the Song of Songs 1.110Origen · ca. 240–245 (Rufinus's translation ca. 410) · Only the perfect bride enters the king's chamber and becomes queen; the young maidens hope to follow; she also has her own chamber of prayer; the maidens promise that they will come to love the Bridegroom's breasts.
Commentary on the Song of Songs 3.191Origen · ca. 240–245 (Rufinus's translation ca. 410) · Those asked to set love in order may be angels, prophets, departed saints who pray for the living, or apostles; the Greek of Song 2:5 names a tree, not ointments.
To Vigilius, on Jewish Unbelief 10Anonymous · 3rd century (disputed) · The author asks Vigilius, as a future martyr, to remember him and pray for his sins before Christ.
Against Celsus 3.34Origen · ca. 248 · Origen rejects Celsus's comparison of Christian worship with the hero cults of Zamolxis, Mopsus, and others: Christians build no temples or statues but, through Jesus as mediator and high priest, pray to the God over all.
Against Celsus 3.63Origen · ca. 248 · God is not swayed by flattery; the penitent's humble confession turns sinners back, and since all sin, Christ calls all who labor to find rest in him.
Against Celsus 3.64Origen · ca. 248 · A repentant sinner is preferred only to a self-satisfied man who thinks himself righteous, as in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.
Against Celsus 4.1Origen · ca. 248 · Origen opens Book 4 with a prayer, asking for words like Jeremiah's to uproot Celsus's errors and to build up the truth, and turns to Celsus's attack on the prophecies of Christ.
Against Celsus 4.26Origen · ca. 248 · If anyone deserves to be called worms, it is idolaters and the sexually licentious, not Christians who rise from creation to the Creator, pray to him, endure death, and keep their bodies chaste as temples of God.
Against Celsus 4.27Origen · ca. 248 · True Christians who share in the church's common prayers are free of the vices common elsewhere; only those who are pure in heart, gentle, peacemakers, and willing to suffer may say God has revealed all things to them.
Against Celsus 4.28Origen · ca. 248 · Christians do not claim God cares for them alone: Scripture teaches that God loves all he made, shows mercy to all flesh, sends sun and rain on all, and that Christ died for the sins of the whole world.
Against Celsus 4.33Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus obscurely mocks the Jews' descent from “sorcerers”; Origen notes that the patriarchs' names, in the formula “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” are used even by pagan magicians against demons, showing their holiness.
Against Celsus 4.34Origen · ca. 248 · The power of the patriarchs' names in exorcism can only be explained from Genesis, and their Hebrew names prove that the Jewish nation truly descends from them.
Against Celsus 4.50Origen · ca. 248 · The psalmist's prayer to see the wonders of God's law and the strange images of the prophets, like Ezekiel's dragon of Egypt, show that Scripture has hidden meanings; the Greek myths, by contrast, are silly and impious.
Against Celsus 4.95Origen · ca. 248 · True foreknowledge comes through God inspiring pure human prophets, not through animals; Moses forbade augury, and Christians guard their hearts so that only God's Spirit shapes their imagination.
Against Celsus 5.1Origen · ca. 248 · Opening Book 5, Origen tells his patron Ambrose he will answer every argument of Celsus, and prays that God, not human wisdom, will make his words effective.
Against Celsus 5.4Origen · ca. 248 · Christians believe in angels who carry prayers up and blessings down, and who are sometimes called 'gods' in Scripture, but prayer and worship go to God alone through Christ the High Priest.
Against Celsus 5.5Origen · ca. 248 · Angels need not be invoked; prayer goes to God through the Son, and the angels favor those who imitate them; 'demons,' unlike 'angels,' always means evil powers.
Against Celsus 5.11Origen · ca. 248 · Those who know God and his Son as the true light will not worship sun and stars, which themselves pray to God through the Son; as Jesus sent praise on to the Father, so the sun would say, 'Worship God alone.'
Against Celsus 5.12Origen · ca. 248 · God is present everywhere by providence, and Christ is always with his disciples, so it is absurd to pray to the stars; even if they announce the weather, their Lord, not his heralds, deserves worship.
Against Celsus 6.41Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus says magic cannot touch philosophers, but Origen notes that philosophers fell under Apollonius's spell, whereas Christians who pray faithfully are protected by God's angels from magic and demons.
Against Celsus 7.1Origen · ca. 248 · Origen opens his seventh book with a prayer that God's truth may destroy the arguments opposed to it, so that all may offer God a spiritual sacrifice.
Against Celsus 7.4Origen · ca. 248 · The Hebrew prophets were made clearer in mind and soul by the Holy Spirit, whereas the Pythia's frenzy shows a demonic spirit, the kind that even simple Christians drive out by prayer.
Against Celsus 7.33Origen · ca. 248 · God is known not by bodily eyes but by the mind made in his image, and seen by a pure heart, which God himself must create in us.
Against Celsus 7.44Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus thinks God is known by the philosophers' methods; the Word says God is known by revelation and grace, and God chose the simple over proud philosophers who still worship images, while the humblest Christian rises in prayer above the world.
Against Celsus 7.46Origen · ca. 248 · Origen accepts what is well said by outsiders, but warns that those who revile humble worshippers maim their own souls; Christians bless when reviled, and rise from creation to God's invisible power, while some philosophers suppress the truth they know.
Against Celsus 7.67Origen · ca. 248 · Christians rightly refuse to serve demons; far from serving them, they drive them out by prayer and Scripture from souls, places, and even animals.
Against Celsus 8.1Origen · ca. 248 · Origen begins Book 8 with a prayer that God and his Word will help him refute Celsus's “True Word” and act as an ambassador for Christ.
Against Celsus 8.13Origen · ca. 248 · Christians do not serve the pagan gods, who are servants of the devil, not of God; they reverence the one God and his Son, offering prayer to the Father through the Son as high priest.
Against Celsus 8.17Origen · ca. 248 · Christians do have altars, images, and temples: the righteous soul is the altar whose incense is prayer, and the virtues formed by the Word are images of God, far surpassing Phidias's Zeus, and best of all in Christ.
Against Celsus 8.21Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus asks why Christians do not join the public festivals; Origen answers that those festivals rest on human myths, and the true festival is doing one's duty and praying always, as Paul warns against observing days.
Against Celsus 8.22Origen · ca. 248 · Christians do keep the Lord's day, Preparation days, Easter, and Pentecost, but for the perfect every day is the Lord's day, a preparation, a passing-over to God, and a Pentecost of prayer and the Spirit.
Against Celsus 8.26Origen · ca. 248 · Christians must die rather than obey or sacrifice to demons; city laws that command it are not true laws, and prayer belongs to God alone, offered through the Son as high priest.
Against Celsus 8.33Origen · ca. 248 · Christians live and use God's gifts with thanksgiving to the Creator, not to demons, whose rule extends only over those who submit to wickedness; they eat the eucharistic bread, which through prayer becomes a holy body that sanctifies.
Against Celsus 8.34Origen · ca. 248 · Christians offer first-fruits and prayers to the Creator through Jesus the high priest, and have the friendship of countless angels who help those who pray; demons have power only over the wicked, not over those armed with God's armour.
Against Celsus 8.36Origen · ca. 248 · God's angels do not harm those who insult them; demons harm only those who submit to them, while the true Christian is guarded by his angel, who carries his prayers to God through Christ the high priest.
Against Celsus 8.37Origen · ca. 248 · Christians do not invoke powers by barbarian names; each prays to God in his own language, and God, Lord of every language, hears them all as one voice.
Against Celsus 8.58Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus cites the Egyptian belief that thirty-six demons each govern a part of the body and can heal it when invoked by name; Origen answers that God alone suffices, and the name of Jesus has healed many.
Against Celsus 8.60Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus himself warns that service of the earthly demons, bound to blood and incense, leads to love of the body and forgetfulness of higher things; Origen concludes it is better to trust God through Christ and to seek healing from medicine or, better, from prayer.
Against Celsus 8.64Origen · ca. 248 · Winning God's favour brings with it the favour of all his angels and holy spirits, who pray alongside Christians and help them against the demons, as Jesus destroyed demons and healed the oppressed.
Against Celsus 8.69Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus mocks the hope that God would defend a Christian Rome, pointing to the Jews' loss of their land and the persecution of Christians; Origen answers that if all Romans prayed together, God would fight for them as for Moses, and God's promises were conditional.
Against Celsus 8.73Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus urges Christians to serve in the emperor's army; Origen answers that Christians help the emperor more by praying for him and for just wars, like pagan priests who keep their hands free of blood, forming an army of prayer against the demons who cause wars.
Against Celsus 8.74Origen · ca. 248 · Christians serve their country as commanders of prayer, offered in secret, and benefit it more than others by teaching piety and preparing citizens for the heavenly city.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 89Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · Jesus left the place of the Passover and chose a pure place to pray before his betrayal; Origen discusses whether the place of prayer matters, defends the church's practice of excluding notorious sinners from common prayer, and warns against despising others in pride.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 92Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · Christ's prayer in Gethsemane belongs to his true human nature, which shrinks from suffering, and teaches submission to God's will; alternatively he grieved for the Jews and for Judas, who would perish through his passion, yet chose the salvation of all; the cup of salvation is martyrdom, and John omits the prayer because he writes of Christ's divinity.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 93Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · The disciples slept when Jesus left them, so we must pray that he never leave us; to “enter into temptation” is to be overcome by it, for whoever comes to Jesus is not overtaken by evils; “the spirit is willing, the flesh weak” describes the saints, whose flesh has been weakened and put to death, and who must the more fear a fall.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 95Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · The cup of the passion was bound to pass from Christ, but only by his drinking it would it also pass from the human race; so he chose to drink it, as Jeremiah's cup of wrath is drunk for cleansing; his threefold prayer teaches perseverance.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 120Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · The custom of releasing a prisoner was a favour of new Roman rule, with a precedent in Israel's rescue of Jonathan; Origen asks whether the Church's prayers can win release for a sinner who serves it, but urges us to be among those who ask; the Jews' feast that chose Barabbas is the one God hates, while we keep the feast by choosing Jesus.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 136Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · Had the bystanders understood that Jesus was calling on God, they would have learned from his prayer, greater than Jonah's, to pray even in extreme distress.
Commentary on Matthew 11.6Origen · ca. 246–248 · Jesus prays for the crowds and the disciples; Origen applies the storm to the believer’s temptations, three watches of struggle against evil powers, until the Word comes in the fourth watch and rescues the doubting “Peter” in us.
Commentary on Matthew 12.39Origen · ca. 246–248 · The Word is transfigured as he prays to the Father on the mountain; his garments, whiter than any earthly fuller can make them, are the Scriptures, whose despised wording shines with meaning beyond the polished style of worldly wisdom.
Commentary on Matthew 13.7Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen explains “faithless and perverse generation,” takes the mountains moved by faith as hostile powers lodged in souls, and advises prayer and fasting rather than addressing the spirit.
Commentary on Matthew 14.1Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen explains “agreement” from its musical sense, gives scriptural examples of two or three who agreed, and says that prayers go unanswered because believers do not agree in doctrine or in life.
Commentary on Matthew 14.2Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen reports an earlier interpreter's reading of the “two who agree” as husband and wife abstaining from intercourse by agreement for prayer, and notes that it encourages agreement rather than dissolving marriage.
Commentary on Matthew 14.3Origen · ca. 246–248 · Another interpretation takes the two who agree as body and spirit in the perfected, and the three as spirit, soul, and body gathered in Christ's name.
Commentary on Matthew 14.4Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen applies the agreement of two to the harmony of the Old and New Testaments, with the Holy Spirit as the third, and notes that Christ says “there I am,” not “I will be.”
Commentary on Matthew 14.24Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen discusses Jesus' exception for sexual immorality, asks whether a man may divorce a wife guilty of poisoning, murder, or theft, notes other ways a husband can make his wife commit adultery, and teaches that celibacy is a gift God gives to those who ask.
Commentary on Matthew 16.26Origen · ca. 246–248 · Leaving Jerusalem for Bethany, the church, Christ curses the fruitless fig tree, which Origen reads as the synagogue; the mountain cast into the sea is Satan, removed from believers by the faith and teaching of Christ’s disciples.
Commentary on Matthew 16.28Origen · ca. 246–248 · A disciple “withers” the fig tree when he exposes, by sound teaching, a professing believer who bears no fruit of wisdom; disciples who believe receive what they ask, asking only for great and heavenly things.
Commentary on Matthew 16.29Origen · ca. 246–248 · Mark’s “it was not the season for figs” teaches that Christ seeks the fruits of the Spirit even out of season—love for enemies, joy in suffering—since God calls believers to be “gods” and more than human; we must ask for great and heavenly things.
Commentary on Romans 1.11Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Paul prays unceasingly and asks for a journey prosperous 'in the will of God', for not every prosperous journey, like Balaam's, is by God's will.
Commentary on Romans 7.6Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen explains how the Spirit helps our weakness in prayer, like a teacher stooping to a beginner, interceding with unutterable groanings, and warns against praying for worldly prosperity.
Commentary on Romans 8.3Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · The same Lord is rich toward all who call upon him, but calling upon the Lord without fitting works, or too late, does not save; in Scripture 'calling upon the name of the Lord' is said of great men such as Enosh, Moses, Aaron and Samuel.
Commentary on Romans 8.5Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Calling on the Lord presupposes faith, and since Christ is called upon he is to be prayed to and honored with the Father; preachers speak only by the power of the one who sends them, and their beautiful feet are spiritual, announcing the one good of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, which heretics announce but not well.
Commentary on Romans 9.11Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Hope in unseen glory brings joy and patience in tribulation, provided we persevere in prayer for the help human frailty needs.
Commentary on Romans 10.7Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · God is the God of patience and comfort in those who have these virtues; Paul blesses the Romans with unanimity, whose power is shown by Christ's promise, by Pentecost, and by a Hebrew tradition about the repentant sons of Korah; they are to receive one another as Christ received them.
Commentary on Romans 10.15Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Even what is prophesied needs prayer, so no one should scorn asking the church's prayers; prayer is a contest against hostile powers and distracting thoughts, and Paul asks help in it so as not to be hindered in Judea, seeking at Rome the rest of mutual comfort in faith.
To Donatus 15Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 246 · Donatus should pray and read Scripture, adorning his soul, the temple of the Holy Spirit, which will last into the resurrection.
To Donatus 16Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 246 · Cyprian ends the talk and invites Donatus to sing psalms at their evening meal.
Ep. Bas. 2Dionysius of Alexandria · ca. 247-265 · Dionysius holds that menstruating women should not approach the holy table or receive the body and blood of Christ, though anyone may pray in any condition.
Ep. Bas. 3Dionysius of Alexandria · ca. 247-265 · Married couples are to judge for themselves when to abstain from intercourse for prayer, following Paul.
To Quirinus 3.14Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · Instead of grumbling, believers should bless God in all circumstances, as Job, the Psalmist, and Paul and Silas did.
To Quirinus 3.19Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · Following Christ's own example, believers must do God's will rather than their own.
To Quirinus 3.22Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · Those who pray to be forgiven must forgive the injuries done to them.
To Quirinus 3.79Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · Those with a clear conscience can pray with confidence and receive what they ask.
To Quirinus 3.120Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · Christians must pray constantly, meditating on God's law day and night.
Fragment E V (on Luke 22:42 ff.)Dionysius of Alexandria · ca. 248–265 · From a commentary on Luke 22:42–48: Christ asked that the cup pass, yet as the Father willed, the two wills being one in the divinity; his bloody sweat and the strengthening angel show his true humanity; ‘not entering temptation’ means not being overcome by it; and his gentle words to Judas teach forbearance.
Letter 11.1Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Cyprian tells his clergy that the persecution came because of the church's sins, even the pride of some confessors, and calls for prayer, fasting, and tears.
Letter 11.2Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · The persecution is God's rod for sin, but he has promised mercy; the church must ask and knock with united, persistent prayer.
Letter 11.3Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · In a vision God rebuked the discordant prayers of the people; if the brothers prayed with one mind, the persecution would have ended.
Letter 11.5Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Rebuked in a vision for drowsiness in prayer, the church must pray watchfully as Christ did, trusting in him as advocate, since nothing can separate believers from his love.
Letter 11.7Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Cyprian wants this letter read to all: believers should repent, not look back like Lot's wife, and pray for one another, trusting that pardon will follow discipline.
Letter 11.8Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Cyprian asks for united, tearful prayer for peace, the restoration of the church, the repentance of the lapsed, and the glory of those who stand firm.
Letter 30.6Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · All should pray for peace; the lapsed should knock humbly at the church's door, not break it down, and plead with tears rather than agitation.
Letter 31.5Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · The confessors count their delay in prison not as mercy but as a hindrance, and ask Cyprian to pray that God will arm them for the final contest.
Letter 37.1Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Celerinus has brought Cyprian news of the Roman confessors; Cyprian prays for them at the Eucharist and says that each day they choose prison over release, they confess and are crowned anew.
Letter 37.4Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Cyprian asks the confessors to pray for him, since their prayers are heard, and praises them for joining strict discipline to courage.
Letter 43.6Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · The lapsed must not be pushed further from salvation by false teachers; they should shun these wolves, whose promises of peace are the devil's lies, and pray with their bishop.
Letter 60.5Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Cyprian urges fasting, vigils, and prayer for the coming struggle, and asks that whichever of them dies first continue to pray for the other before the Lord.
Letter 61.4Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · The Roman people's joy at Lucius's return foreshadows the joy of Christ's coming; the African church prays that he may complete his confession by martyrdom before his own people.
Letter 62.4Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Carthage stands ready to help again, and Cyprian sends the donors' names so that they may be remembered in the Numidian churches' sacrifices and prayers.
Letter 67.2Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Human indulgence cannot override God's law: only spotless men, whose prayers God hears, may be ordained bishops.
Letter 76.7Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Cyprian describes the confessors' joy in awaiting death and glory, and asks their prayers that he too may complete his confession.
Letter 77.3Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · The confessors thank Cyprian for his letter and for the relief sent through his clergy, and ask for mutual prayer.
Letter 78.2Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · They thank Cyprian for his words, which strengthened them in suffering and assured them of the crown, and ask his prayers.
Letter 79.1Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · The confessors at the mine of Sigus thank Cyprian for his gift and letter and ask his prayers.
On the Dress of Virgins 24Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 249 · Cyprian closes by urging virgins to encourage one another and asks them to remember him when their virginity is rewarded.
Martyrdom of Conon 6Anonymous · ca. 250 · Conon is made to run before the chariot with nailed feet and dies praying; a short summary of his martyrdom follows.
Acts of Achatius (Disputation of Achatius) 1Anonymous · ca. 250–251 · Achatius professes loyal prayer for the emperor but refuses sacrifice, naming the God of Abraham.
On the Lord's Prayer 2Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Christ himself gave us the form of prayer, so that praying as he taught is the truest spiritual worship.
On the Lord's Prayer 3Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Praying Christ's own words is most effective, since he is our advocate with the Father.
On the Lord's Prayer 4Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Prayer should be quiet and modest, in private and in church, since God sees the heart and is everywhere.
On the Lord's Prayer 5Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Hannah prayed silently in her heart and was heard, as the psalms and Jeremiah also teach.
On the Lord's Prayer 6Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · The humble tax collector, not the self-satisfied Pharisee, is the model for prayer.
On the Lord's Prayer 7Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Cyprian gives the text of the Lord's Prayer.
On the Lord's Prayer 8Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · The Lord's Prayer is a common prayer for the whole church, prayed in unity like the three youths and the apostles.
On the Lord's Prayer 9Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · The reborn believer calls God 'Father' because by faith he has become God's son, and he has only one Father in heaven.
On the Lord's Prayer 10Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · 'Our Father' is the prayer of believers made God's children, which Cyprian contrasts with those Jews who rejected Christ.
On the Lord's Prayer 11Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Those who call God Father must live as his sons, as temples of the Spirit.
On the Lord's Prayer 12Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · 'Hallowed be your name' asks that we, sanctified in baptism, may stay holy.
On the Lord's Prayer 13Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · 'Your kingdom come' asks for the heavenly kingdom promised to believers; Christ himself can be understood as that kingdom.
On the Lord's Prayer 14Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · 'Your will be done' asks for God's help to do his will, as Christ did the Father's will.
On the Lord's Prayer 15Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · God's will is the life Christ lived and taught: humility, faith, justice, mercy, peace, love, and steadfastness to death.
On the Lord's Prayer 16Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Since we are both earth (body) and heaven (spirit), we pray that God's will may bring the flesh into harmony with the spirit.
On the Lord's Prayer 17Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · 'On earth as in heaven' can also mean praying that unbelievers too may be reborn and become heavenly.
On the Lord's Prayer 18Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · 'Our daily bread' is Christ in the Eucharist, received daily; we pray not to be cut off from it by grave sin.
On the Lord's Prayer 19Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · 'Daily bread' also means that disciples who have renounced the world ask only for today's food.
On the Lord's Prayer 20Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Riches are dangerous, like the rich fool's; the perfect give to the poor and store up treasure in heaven.
On the Lord's Prayer 21Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · God provides food for the righteous, as he did for Daniel among the lions and Elijah by the ravens.
On the Lord's Prayer 22Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Praying daily for forgiveness reminds us that we sin daily and assures us of God's faithful pardon.
On the Lord's Prayer 23Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · God forgives us only as we forgive others; the greatest sacrifice is peace and a people united in the unity of the Trinity.
On the Lord's Prayer 24Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · God looked at Abel's heart, not his gift; Abel became the first martyr, while one who hates his brother is not saved even by martyrdom.
On the Lord's Prayer 25Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · 'Do not allow us to be led into temptation' teaches that the devil can do nothing unless God permits it.
On the Lord's Prayer 26Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Temptation is permitted either as punishment or as testing; praying against it keeps us humble.
On the Lord's Prayer 27Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · 'Deliver us from evil' sums up every petition, for with God's protection nothing need be feared.
On the Lord's Prayer 28Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · As Isaiah foretold, Christ gave a short word: brief summaries of eternal life, the law, and prayer.
On the Lord's Prayer 29Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Christ, though sinless, prayed often and all night; how much more should sinners pray.
On the Lord's Prayer 30Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Christ prayed for us, and above all that his people might be one as he and the Father are one.
On the Lord's Prayer 31Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · In prayer the heart must be fixed on God alone, as the liturgy's 'Lift up your hearts' reminds us.
On the Lord's Prayer 32Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Prayer must be joined with good works, fasting, and almsgiving, like that of Cornelius.
On the Lord's Prayer 33Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Prayers joined with good works rise quickly to God, as with Tobit, as Isaiah teaches, and as Paul calls gifts to him a sacrifice.
On the Lord's Prayer 34Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Praying at the third, sixth, and ninth hours was a figure of the Trinity, fulfilled at Pentecost, in Peter's vision, and at the cross.
On the Lord's Prayer 35Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Christians also pray at dawn for the resurrection and at sunset for Christ, the true Sun and Day, and indeed at every hour.
On the Lord's Prayer 36Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Christians, living in Christ's light, should pray at night too, anticipating the endless day of the kingdom.
Oxyrhynchus hymn (P. Oxy. 15.1786), lines 1–5Anonymous · late 3rd cent. · The end of a Christian hymn on a papyrus from Oxyrhynchus: all creation is bidden to keep silence while the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are praised, and the heavenly powers answer 'Amen'.
Martyrdom of Pionius and Companions 11Anonymous · 250 (the text may be later) · In prison they refuse gifts and are moved to the inner cell, which they welcome.
Prayer 1 1Anonymous · uncertain · A prayer ascribed to Cyprian asks God for purity of heart, protection from the devil, and help such as he gave to Tobias, Daniel, Thecla, Paul, and Peter.
Prayer 2 1Anonymous · uncertain · The second prayer ascribed to Cyprian opens by invoking the God of the patriarchs, the Judge and Giver of life, and asks to be freed from this mortal world.
Prayer 2 2Anonymous · uncertain · The petitioner confesses his sins and asks God to hear him as he heard Jonah, the Ninevites, David, the three young men, Daniel, Tobit and Sarah, Susanna, Hezekiah, and Thecla.
Prayer 2 3Anonymous · uncertain · The petitioner thanks the Father for sending his Son, born of the Virgin by the Holy Spirit, to free us from death.
Prayer 2 4Anonymous · uncertain · The petitioner invokes the Son of God through his miracles and his work in creation.
Prayer 2 5Anonymous · uncertain · The petitioner recalls the angels' praise and Christ's promises about prayer, and declares himself ready to shed his blood for Christ's name.
Prayer 2 6Anonymous · uncertain · The prayer ends by confessing Christ's passion, descent, resurrection, and return, and asks for victory over the devil and deliverance from eternal punishment.
On the Lapsed 19Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Even Moses, Jeremiah, Noah, Daniel, and Job could not obtain forgiveness for others against God's will; so no human petition can override God's judgment.
On the Lapsed 31Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Even the innocent three youths in the furnace and Daniel confessed their sins to God with fasting and humility.
On the Lapsed 32Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Cyprian begs the lapsed to join the clergy's tears and prayers with full penance.
On the Lapsed 35Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · The lapsed must do long and earnest penance with prayer, fasting, mourning, and generous almsgiving, spending on the poor the property that caused their fall.
On the Unity of the Catholic Church 12Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Christ's promise to be with 'two or three' applies only to those praying in unity within the church, not to schismatics.
On the Unity of the Catholic Church 13Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · God accepts neither prayer nor sacrifice from those at odds with their brothers, so schismatics cannot expect Christ's presence.
On the Unity of the Catholic Church 25Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · In the apostles' time believers were of one mind, and so their prayers were effective.
To Demetrian 20Cyprian of Carthage · 252–253 · Like Habakkuk, Christians rejoice in God even when crops fail, awaiting heaven; yet they pray day and night for rain, peace, and the safety of their persecutors.
On Mortality 18Cyprian of Carthage · 252–253 · We pray daily that God's will be done and his kingdom come, so we should not resist when he calls us from this world.
On Works and Almsgiving 5Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 253 · Scripture teaches that sins are redeemed by mercy to the poor, as Daniel counseled Nebuchadnezzar and Raphael told Tobit; prayers and fasts without almsgiving avail little.
On Works and Almsgiving 6Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 253 · Tabitha, devoted to almsgiving, was raised from the dead by Peter at the widows' pleading, showing that mercy frees even from bodily death.
On Jealousy and Envy 16Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 256 · Scripture reading, prayer, and good works arm the mind, and peace too has its crowns: victories over lust, anger, greed, pride, and envy.
To Fortunatus 4Cyprian of Carthage · 253 or 257 · Scripture shows God refusing to pardon idolatry even at the prayers of Moses and Jeremiah, since sin against God has no one to intercede for it.
Acts of Fructuosus, Augurius and Eulogius 1Anonymous · 259 (21 January) · Fructuosus, bishop of Tarragona, and his deacons Augurius and Eulogius are arrested on a Sunday and taken to prison, where he prays without ceasing.
Acts of Fructuosus, Augurius and Eulogius 4Anonymous · 259 (21 January) · In the amphitheater Fructuosus comforts the church that it will not lack a shepherd; the three are burned, and when their bonds burn away they kneel in prayer with arms outstretched until they die.
Passion of Montanus and Lucius 3Anonymous · 259 · Their prayers turn the governor from burning them alive.
Passion of Montanus and Lucius 10Anonymous · 259 · An exhortation to concord and peace among the brothers.
Passion of Montanus and Lucius 15Anonymous · 259 · Montanus prays that Flavian may follow in three days and is beheaded.
Symposium 5.8Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · The bronze altar is the elders and widows; the golden altar within is the virgins, pure as gold, whose prayers rise like incense.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 8.1Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The church's prayers and the seven trumpets mean the archangels sent to strike the Antichrist's kingdom, as the Gospel foretells.
Book 3, chapter 24Macarius Magnes · ca. 400 (disputed) · Macarius answers that the deadly drug that does not harm believers is the death to sin in baptism, and the laying of hands on the sick is the saints' prayer over sick seasons and souls, as Polycarp's prayers ended drought and flood.
Res. 3.21Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Romans 14:9: the living are the souls, the dead the bodies.
Apostolic Church Order 13Anonymous · ca. 300 · Make peace, judge impartially, pray without doubting, give generously and share all things with your brother.
Apostolic Church Order 21Anonymous · ca. 300 · Three widows are to be appointed: two for prayer and revelations, one to serve sick women and report their needs to the presbyters.
Apostolic Church Order 27Anonymous · ca. 300 · Women are to pray seated on the ground, not standing.
Against the Nations 1.27Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · Christians are simply worshipers of the supreme God under Christ as teacher, and their prayer benefits themselves, not God.
Against the Nations 1.31Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · Arnobius breaks into a prayer to the supreme, unknowable God, asking pardon for persecutors, and sets aside atheists and atomists as not worth refuting.
Against the Nations 4.36Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · Pagans reward actors who mock the gods, yet burn Christian books and destroy churches where prayer is made for all, including rulers and enemies.
Against the Nations 6.4Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · Gods need no temples to hear prayers, for true divinity is present everywhere and knows even silent thoughts.
Against the Nations 6.5Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · A god confined to temples could not hear worshipers praying at the same time in distant temples.
Canons of Hippolytus, canon 3Anonymous · 4th century · The prayer for a new bishop, the kiss of peace, and the opening dialogue of the eucharistic prayer, with blessings of oil and firstfruits.
Canons of Hippolytus, canon 5Anonymous · 4th century · The deacon serves the bishop and presbyters, reports the sick and the hidden poor, and is ordained with a prayer naming Stephen as model.
Canons of Hippolytus, canon 9Anonymous · 4th century · A presbyter moving to another church must bring testimony from his bishop or be examined, and is not reordained; widows are to be honored for their prayer, care of the sick, and fasting.
Canons of Hippolytus, canon 21Anonymous · 4th century · Clergy and people are to gather daily at cockcrow for prayer, psalms, and Scripture reading; absent clergy are separated, and the gravely sick are visited daily.
Canons of Hippolytus, canon 24Anonymous · 4th century · A deacon accompanies the bishop to visit the sick, who often recover through his prayer; the dying are not put out in the cemetery, and the sick who have homes pray in church and return home.
Canons of Hippolytus, canon 25Anonymous · 4th century · A steward cares for the sick at the bishop's charge; Christians are to pray on rising, at the third, sixth, and ninth hours, at sunset, in the evening, and at midnight.
Canons of Hippolytus, canon 26Anonymous · 4th century · Believers are to hasten to the assemblies for the word of God and prayer, where the Lord is present and the Spirit gives grace, rather than stay at home.
Canons of Hippolytus, canon 27Anonymous · 4th century · Those who cannot go to church daily should read Scripture at home and pray at midnight and cockcrow; marriage does not defile, and the married need only wash their hands before prayer.
Canons of Hippolytus, canon 29Anonymous · 4th century · The consecrated elements are to be guarded from falling or contamination, silence kept within the veil, psalms sung after communion, the altar dust thrown into the baptistery, and the forehead signed with the cross like the Passover blood.
Canons of Hippolytus, canon 32Anonymous · 4th century · Virgins and widows fast and pray often; clergy fast freely; a deacon may act for an absent presbyter except at the great offering; alms are distributed promptly; agapes for the poor are held with the bishop's prayer and end before dark.
Canons of Hippolytus, canon 36Anonymous · 4th century · Firstfruits of every kind are brought to the bishop, and a presbyter gives thanks and blesses them and the giver with a set prayer.
Church History 2.17.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Philo (quoted): each house has a sacred room, a “monastery,” where they study only the law, the prophets, and hymns.
Church History 2.17.13Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Philo (quoted): they also compose hymns to God in various metres.
Church History 2.17.21Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Their assemblies, separate quarters for men and women, and Easter fasts and vigils match Christian practice.
Church History 2.17.22Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Philo describes night vigils, responsive hymns, sleeping on straw, and a diet of bread, water, salt, and hyssop, which Eusebius equates with the Christian Easter vigil.
Church History 2.23.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Hegesippus (quoted): James, dressed in linen, prayed in the sanctuary for the people until his knees were like a camel's.
Church History 2.23.16Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Hegesippus (quoted): James survived the fall and, as they stoned him, knelt and prayed for their forgiveness.
Church History 3.23.19Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Clement (quoted): John assured him of forgiveness, brought him back to the church with prayer and fasting, and restored him, an example of true repentance.
Church History 3.33.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Pliny, alarmed by the number of martyrs, told Trajan that Christians only sang to Christ at dawn and forbade adultery and murder.
Church History 4.15.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Polycarp, calm, was persuaded to withdraw to a farm, where he prayed night and day for the churches.
Church History 4.15.14Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · He fed his captors, prayed for an hour full of grace, and many regretted arresting him.
Church History 4.15.33Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The Martyrdom (quoted): Polycarp blessed God for counting him worthy to share Christ's cup among the martyrs.
Church History 4.15.34Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The Martyrdom (quoted): he prayed to be received as an acceptable sacrifice.
Church History 4.15.35Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The Martyrdom (quoted): Polycarp ended with praise to the Father through Christ in the Holy Spirit.
Church History 5.1.41Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Blandina, hung as on a cross, inspired the others, who saw Christ crucified in her.
Church History 5.1.51Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Alexander and Attalus died after every torture, Alexander silently praying.
Church History 5.2.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · They gave the title “martyr” to Christ and the dead, calling themselves mere confessors and asking for prayer.
Church History 5.2.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The confessors humbly defended and forgave everyone and prayed for their persecutors, like Stephen.
Church History 5.5.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · In a campaign against the Germans, Christian soldiers of the Melitene legion knelt and prayed while Marcus Aurelius's army suffered from thirst.
Church History 5.5.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Lightning routed the enemy and rain saved the Roman army.
Church History 5.5.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Pagan historians record the miracle but do not credit Christian prayer; Christian writers do.
Church History 5.5.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Apolinarius says the legion was afterwards called “the Thundering Legion.”
Church History 5.5.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · According to Tertullian, a letter of Marcus Aurelius credited the Christians' prayers and threatened their accusers.
Church History 5.7.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Irenaeus: the heretics cannot raise the dead, but in the church the dead have been restored through fasting and prayer.
Church History 5.28.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Irenaeus, Melito, and the church's early hymns all proclaim Christ as God.
Church History 6.2.14Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Origen refused ever to pray with the heretic Paul, keeping the church's rule.
Church History 6.5.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Basilides protected her from the crowd, and she promised to pray for him after her death.
Church History 6.9.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · At an Easter vigil when the lamp oil ran out, Narcissus had water brought to him.
Church History 6.9.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · At his prayer the water became oil, and some of it was kept as a relic.
Church History 6.11.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Alexander came on pilgrimage from Cappadocia, and a revelation led Jerusalem to keep him as bishop.
Church History 6.11.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Alexander writes that Narcissus, aged 116, shared his episcopate.
Church History 6.34.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Report has it that the emperor Philip, a Christian, was made to do public penance before joining the Easter vigil.
Church History 6.42.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The martyrs, now judging with Christ, had received back repentant lapsed Christians into communion.
Church History 7.1.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Decius died and Gallus succeeded; Origen died at sixty-nine; Dionysius says Gallus repeated Decius's error by persecuting those who prayed for him.
Church History 7.9.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The man still mourns and fears to approach the table.
Church History 7.11.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Dionysius: Christians worship the one Creator God, who gave the emperors their rule, and pray for their empire.
Church History 7.17.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · At the Jordan springs at Paneas, Astyrius's prayer ended a pagan "miracle" in which sacrifices vanished.
Church History 7.24.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Dionysius respects Nepos's faith and hymns but puts truth first and will correct his errors.
Church History 7.30.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · They say he banned hymns to Christ and had women sing hymns in his own honour at Easter.
Church History 8.7.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · A youth under twenty stood with arms outstretched in the form of a cross, praying calmly, while bears and leopards were held back from him.
Church History 8.9.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · As some were condemned, others rushed forward to confess Christ and went to death singing psalms and hymns.
Church History 8.17.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · In his agony Galerius confessed to God and ordered the persecution stopped and the Christians allowed to rebuild churches and pray for the emperor.
Church History 8.17.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The edict ends by asking the Christians to pray to their God for the emperors, the state, and themselves.
Church History 9.1.11Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Crowds sang psalms in the streets, exiles returned joyfully, and even former persecutors rejoiced with them.
Church History 9.9.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Constantine, praying to God and Christ for help, marched on Rome to free it.
Church History 10.1.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Eusebius begins Book 10 by thanking God and Christ and praying that peace may last.
Church History 10.3.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · One Spirit united the church in faith and worship: psalms, Scripture reading, and the celebration of the sacred mysteries of Christ's passion.
Church History 10.3.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · People of every age and sex praised God, and the bishops present gave festive speeches.
Church History 10.4.36Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Paulinus, a new Zerubbabel, after the desolation prayed for God's mercy and with Christ's help raised the fallen church to a glory greater than before.
Church History 10.4.54Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Paulinus, as the bride's attendant, with the people's prayers and by Christ's power, raised the fallen church as Scripture describes.
Church History 10.4.68Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The true altar is the pure soul of the priest; Christ the High Priest receives the people's prayers as bloodless sacrifices and offers them to the Father.
Church History 10.4.71Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · All should praise God, who forgives, heals, redeems, and pities those who fear him, as Psalm 103 says.
Church History 10.4.72Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The panegyric ends with a prayer that God keep the church in his fold and grant eternal peace through Christ.
Church History 10.8.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Licinius expelled Christians from his household, depriving himself of their prayers, and dismissed Christian soldiers who would not sacrifice.
Church History 10.8.16Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Licinius, with a bad conscience, believed Christians prayed only for Constantine and so turned his anger on them.
Acta Archelai (Latin) 23Hegemonius · early to mid 4th century (Greek original) · The judges rule that body and soul have one maker; Archelaus argues that the Lord's Prayer is addressed to the Father in heaven, not to the maker Manes posits.
Martyrdom of Ignatius 7.2Anonymous · 4th–5th century (disputed) · The writers keep a night vigil and pray for assurance; in a short sleep they see Ignatius embracing them, praying for them, and standing beside the Lord.
Martyrdom of Ignatius 7.3Anonymous · 4th–5th century (disputed) · The writers praise God for the visions and send the day of the martyrdom so that the churches may gather on it each year in fellowship with Ignatius.
Homilies 3.1Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · On the third morning Clement and his companions find Peter at prayer before the debate with Simon.
Homilies 3.29Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Zacchaeus announces that the crowd and Simon are waiting; Peter dismisses the unbaptized Clement, prays with the baptized, and goes out.
Homilies 3.37Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Man may become incorruptible by knowing, loving, and praying to the one God, who alone bears the name God.
Homilies 3.55Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Jesus’ sayings correct the scriptural claims that God swears, tempts, lacks foreknowledge, or does not see all.
Homilies 3.60Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter calls for prayer to choose a successor who will sit on the seat of Christ, citing the parable of the faithful and unfaithful servant.
Homilies 3.72Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter ordains Zacchaeus with a prayer asking God to give him authority to bind and loose and to guard the church as Christ’s bride.
Homilies 9.10Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Demons enter bodies to enjoy food and sex, so fasting and hardship drive them out, and stubborn demons require prayer to God.
Homilies 9.11Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Demons stay in proportion to a person's unbelief, but flee at once from those who fully believe and do good.
Homilies 11.20Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Believers separated from their families do not hate them but, following Jesus' prayer from the cross, pray for and love even their persecutors.
Homilies 17.11Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter rejects a formless God and defends the fear of God as the source of good deeds and freedom from other fears.
Recognitions 2.19Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Peter prays with the baptized (Clement, not yet baptized, withdraws) and goes out to debate Simon before a great crowd.
Recognitions 3.50Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · The crowd kneels in repentance, and Peter prays over them with tears.
Recognitions 3.62Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Peter teaches that only one who renounces worldly affairs and loves God can persevere in learning about him.
Recognitions 3.66Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Peter ordains Zacchaeus bishop of Caesarea with twelve presbyters and four deacons, and gives the church its instructions.
Recognitions 5.29Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · God's care for humanity is shown by the elements serving it, and his friendship by answered prayers like Elijah's, so honoring others as gods is like honoring a stranger in place of one's father.
Recognitions 5.30Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Ancestral custom is no excuse for idolatry, and those who pray to God in drought but then offer their first fruits to idols are ungrateful.
Recognitions 10.43Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Peter urges Faustinianus, given the shortness of life, to repent, adorn his soul with virtue, keep the company of believers, pray, and help his repentance by almsgiving.
Recognitions 10.69Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · The Antiochenes bring their sick to Peter, and he prays in thanksgiving to the Father who fulfills every promise of the Son.
Testament of Our Lord 1.13Anonymous · ca. 350–500
Testament of Our Lord 1.22Anonymous · ca. 350–500
Testament of Our Lord 1.35Anonymous · ca. 350–500
Testament of Our Lord 2.24Anonymous · ca. 350–500
Acts of Felix of Tibiuca 6Anonymous · 303 (15 June, per the Acts) · Felix gives thanks and is beheaded on 30 August.
Kayser p. 410Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 303-312 · Eusebius asks why a fated Apollonius needed teachers, sacrifices and prayers, and why he could avert a plague against destiny.
Prophetic Extracts 3.29Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius reads Malachi's pure sacrifice offered among the nations as the Christian worship of prayer, offered through Christ, replacing the sacrifices of the former people.
Divine Institutes 2.1.9Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · In war, plague, drought, or storm people turn to God.
Divine Institutes 2.1.10Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The endangered and the poor call on God alone.
Divine Institutes 5.19.26Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Worship of God requires devotion from the heart.
Divine Institutes 5.19.30Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Christian worship is inward; pagan rites admit criminals praying for success.
Divine Institutes 5.19.32Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Christian worship demands a clean conscience before God who sees the heart.
Divine Institutes 6.1.2Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Man was made to worship God with a pure mind.
Divine Institutes 6.2.13Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · True worship offers the mind as a spotless victim.
Divine Institutes 6.21.9Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Sing God's praises.
Divine Institutes 6.24.26Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · A true worshipper's sacrifices are virtues.
Divine Institutes 6.24.27Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · God desires the living sacrifice of a good life.
Divine Institutes 6.24.28Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The heart's offerings, not rites, are needed.
Divine Institutes 6.24.29Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The heart is God's altar; virtues are its offerings.
Divine Institutes 6.25.1Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Plato: ivory is no pure gift; nothing perishable is.
Divine Institutes 6.25.2Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · No bodily gift befits an incorporeal God.
Divine Institutes 6.25.3Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Seneca: God is worshipped with a pure mind, in the heart.
Divine Institutes 6.25.5Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Two offerings: a lasting gift and a sacrifice.
Divine Institutes 6.25.7Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The gift is a pure soul; the sacrifice is praise.
Divine Institutes 6.25.10Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Hermes: the one worship of God is not to be evil.
Divine Institutes 6.25.11Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Hermes: God needs no incense; his sacrifice is thanksgiving.
Divine Institutes 6.25.12Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The highest worship is humble praise from a just man.
Divine Institutes 6.25.13Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Always ask God's mercy and forgiveness.
Divine Institutes 6.25.14Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Give thanks in all things and pray everywhere.
Divine Institutes 6.25.15Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Each person is God's temple.
Divine Institutes 7.25.8Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Christians pray that Rome's fall be delayed.
Acts of the Abitinian Martyrs 6Anonymous · 304 (12 February) · Asked who led the assembly, Thelica names Saturninus the presbyter and all of them; under torture he prays for his enemies and confesses that he cares only for the law of God.
Acts of the Abitinian Martyrs 7Anonymous · 304 (12 February) · Dativus confesses; Fortunatianus, an advocate, accuses him of having led his sister Victoria astray, but Victoria declares she came of her own will; Dativus is torn with hooks and prays not to be put to shame.
1Anonymous · 304 (1 April) · Three women of Thessalonica flee persecution to a mountain to pray.
5Anonymous · 304 (6 April) · Irenaeus prays on the bridge, is beheaded, and is thrown into the Sava.
Acts of Phileas and Philoromus 3.4Anonymous · ca. 306-311
Canonical Epistle, canon 11Peter of Alexandria · AD 306 · The first to rush forward to martyrdom are praised; and the requests of the faithful to pray for those who lapsed after torture, and for their reconciliation, are to be granted.
On the Anger of God 4.5Lactantius · ca. 313–314 · A God deaf to prayer and blind to worship would have no blessedness; providence is what is most proper to him.
On the Anger of God 16.1Lactantius · ca. 313–314 · Men in trouble appeal to God, so God has reason for pity and helps them.
On the Anger of God 16.2Lactantius · ca. 313–314 · Many worship and serve God with prayer and good works, so he has reason to show favor.
Martyrs of Palestine (shorter recension) 7.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 311–314 · On Easter Sunday Theodosia, a young virgin of Tyre, greeted Christian prisoners and asked their prayers.
Martyrs of Palestine (shorter recension) 8.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 311–314 · Paul prayed for the Christians, the Jews, the Samaritans, the pagans, and the bystanders.
Martyrs of Palestine (shorter recension) 8.11Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 311–314 · He prayed also for his judge, the rulers, and his executioner, that their sin not be counted against them.
Martyrs of Palestine (shorter recension) 13.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 311–314 · The confessors lived in fasting and prayer, and the devil, unable to bear them, sought their death.
Preparation for the Gospel 4.11.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Porphyry says the supreme God is worshipped only by pure silence and contemplation.
Preparation for the Gospel 4.13.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Apollonius of Tyana says the supreme God should receive no sacrifice, only silent prayer of the mind.
Preparation for the Gospel 6.6.19Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Fatalism also destroys piety and prayer.
Preparation for the Gospel 6.11.11Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Fatalism makes prayer pointless.
Preparation for the Gospel 7.8.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Constantly calling on God as Master and Father is the highest blessedness.
Preparation for the Gospel 7.8.12Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Christians imitate Enosh in calling on God's name with hope.
Preparation for the Gospel 7.10.16Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Eusebius turns to the texts themselves, beginning with God.
Preparation for the Gospel 8.5.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Sacrifices and prayers were offered for the king.
Preparation for the Gospel 8.8.29Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Sacrifices are sober, and prayer is first for the common good.
Preparation for the Gospel 8.8.30Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Prayer asks for the capacity to receive and keep God's gifts.
Preparation for the Gospel 9.2.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Theophrastus calls the Jews philosophers who fast, pray, and study the stars.
Preparation for the Gospel 9.3.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Essenes pray at dawn, work until midday, and bathe before eating.
Preparation for the Gospel 9.3.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Their meal is a holy rite with prayers before and after.
Preparation for the Gospel 10.2.12Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Delphi told the starving Greeks to seek the prayer of Aeacus.
Preparation for the Gospel 10.2.13Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Aeacus prayed for Greece on the mountain.
Preparation for the Gospel 10.2.14Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Rain and harvest followed Aeacus’s prayer.
Preparation for the Gospel 10.2.15Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Clement compares Samuel’s prayer for rain and concludes there is one God.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.18.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Numenius begins with prayer.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.3.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · 2 Maccabees shows Jeremiah praying for the people after death.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.51.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Plato invokes God before proving the gods’ existence.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 53.1Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · God, needing nothing, desires not material offerings but an incorporeal sacrifice.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 53.3Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · The true sacrifice is the pure worship of the heart.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 60.3Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · As one family we must love all, not avenge wrongs, and pray for enemies.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 62.1Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Since no one is sinless, the remedy is repentance, which God will not refuse.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 62.3Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Always confess and give thanks; God exalts the humble.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 66.10Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · When the Antichrist besieges the righteous, God will send them a deliverer.
On the Deaths of the Persecutors 1.1Lactantius · ca. 314–315 · Lactantius addresses Donatus, a confessor, and says God has heard the prayers of the persecuted.
On the Deaths of the Persecutors 1.4Lactantius · ca. 314–315 · After the storm God has answered his servants' prayers and wiped away the tears of the mourners.
On the Deaths of the Persecutors 11.1Lactantius · ca. 314–315 · Galerius's mother, a zealous pagan, gave sacrificial feasts which the Christians refused to share.
On the Deaths of the Persecutors 34.4Lactantius · ca. 314–315 · Since many Christians persisted, they are allowed to exist and assemble, and must pray for the emperors.
On the Deaths of the Persecutors 46.3Lactantius · ca. 314–315 · An angel told Licinius in a dream to pray with his army to the highest God.
On the Deaths of the Persecutors 46.4Lactantius · ca. 314–315 · The angel taught him the words of the prayer.
On the Deaths of the Persecutors 46.5Lactantius · ca. 314–315 · On waking Licinius dictated the prayer.
On the Deaths of the Persecutors 46.6Lactantius · ca. 314–315 · The text of the prayer to the highest God.
On the Deaths of the Persecutors 46.7Lactantius · ca. 314–315 · The prayer was taught to the whole army, raising their spirits.
On the Deaths of the Persecutors 46.10Lactantius · ca. 314–315 · Licinius's army prayed together in sight of the enemy.
On the Deaths of the Persecutors 46.11Lactantius · ca. 314–315 · After praying three times they re-armed; the emperors met to talk.
On the Deaths of the Persecutors 52.4Lactantius · ca. 314–315 · Let us celebrate God's victory with prayer so that he may make the peace permanent.
On the Deaths of the Persecutors 52.5Lactantius · ca. 314–315 · Donatus is asked to pray for God's continued mercy and the church's lasting peace.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.6.40Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christ taught that true worship is not bound to a place but is in spirit and truth.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.6.42Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The patriarchs worshiped in spirit and truth, and Zephaniah foretold that all nations would worship God from their own places.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.6.44Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The pure sacrifice is offered everywhere through prayer and pious deeds rather than blood.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.6.57Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · All nations now worship God at home in spirit and truth with bloodless worship.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.6.65Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The gospel frees worship from a single place.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.6.71Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christ commands love of enemies and prayer for persecutors.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.8.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Ascetics live as if in heaven and serve as priests for all through pure doctrine, soul, and virtue.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.10.33Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The psalms proclaim the spiritual sacrifice of praise.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.10.34Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Prayer and a broken spirit are sacrifices to God.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.10.36Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christians offer the sacrifice of praise, the holy victim, and a contrite heart.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.10.37Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christians offer incense through their prayers everywhere.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.10.38Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christians sacrifice by celebrating the Eucharist, offering thanksgiving and hymns, and consecrating themselves wholly to God in purity and true doctrine.
Demonstration of the Gospel 3.2.21Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Moses prayed for Miriam’s healing.
Demonstration of the Gospel 3.3.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Porphyry teaches that the supreme God is worshiped by silence, pure thought, and a passionless life, not material offerings.
Demonstration of the Gospel 3.3.11Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Apollonius of Tyana taught that the First God should be worshiped not with sacrifice but with the silent word of the mind.
Demonstration of the Gospel 3.5.74Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The disciples, though unlearned, embraced an ascetic life of fasting, prayer, and purity.
Demonstration of the Gospel 3.6.35Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christians drive out demons by the name of Jesus and prayer, and are their enemies, not their servants.
Demonstration of the Gospel 3.7.39Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christians also defeat invisible demonic powers by purity, prayer, and Christ's name, showing his divine power.
Demonstration of the Gospel 4.16.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Psalm 20 is the prayer of the saints for Christ, who prays and fights for us.
Demonstration of the Gospel 6.3.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · God rejects animal sacrifices and asks for a sacrifice of praise.
Demonstration of the Gospel 7.2.32Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · David vows not to rest until God reveals to him where Christ will be born.
Demonstration of the Gospel 7.2.33Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · David's prayer is soon answered by a revelation of the Spirit.
Demonstration of the Gospel 8.2.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Daniel 9:20–22: while Daniel prays, Gabriel comes to give him understanding.
Demonstration of the Gospel 8.2.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · With a prayer for understanding, Eusebius begins to expound Daniel 9:24.
Demonstration of the Gospel 8.2.82Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Zechariah speaks of the seventieth year of desolation, the same seventy years Daniel understood from Jeremiah.
Demonstration of the Gospel 10.3.12Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · While Christ prayed in Gethsemane, Judas and the rulers returned evil for his many benefits.
Demonstration of the Gospel 10.8.43Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Alternatively, Christ, always heard by the Father, trusts he will be heard now, as at Lazarus’s tomb.
Demonstration of the Gospel 10.8.48Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · If the saints were heard, how much more the beloved Son; his question is humble, not foolish.
Demonstration of the Gospel 10.8.62Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christ entreats the Father who cared for him from birth not to stand far off.
Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 2.2Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · Constantine asks the learned to correct his errors and prays for the inspiration of the Father and the Son.
Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 3.3Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · With many gods one could not know whom to pray to, whom to thank, or whom to blame.
Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 11.3Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · Constantine invokes Christ's help and disclaims rhetorical ornament.
Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 11.13Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · Constantine gives thanks to Christ, God and Saviour.
Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 12.4Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · The martyr does not boast, knowing his strength is God's gift; he is honoured with lasting memory, hymns and psalms.
Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 14.3Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · The only human power comparable to God's is sincere worship and contemplation; the grateful accept the order of things, the ungrateful are punished for arrogance.
Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 16.2Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · Memphis and Babylon, centres of idolatry, lie desolate, as Constantine saw himself; at Memphis Moses overthrew Pharaoh by prayer alone.
Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 17.5Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · Accused because of his thrice-daily prayer, Daniel was thrown to the lions, but his prayer tamed them.
Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 17.6Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · The king saw Daniel praying to Christ unharmed among the submissive lions and threw the accusing magi to the beasts, who devoured them.
Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 25.5Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · The world, the stars, the new age, and the thanksgiving of the liberated all testify to God's judgment and love.
Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 26.2Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · Constantine's victories came through prayer, which never fails where faith is firm; all should thank Christ and pray to him, the invincible ally, judge and giver of eternal life.
On the Incarnation 52.3Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Hearing Christ's teaching, barbarians turn from war to farming and prayer, fighting the devil instead.
Letter 2.3Antony the Great · before 356 · Antony says that because Christ became weak and poor for us, we must pray without sleeping until God goes with us.
Letter 2.10Antony the Great · before 356 · Antony urges unceasing prayer, warns that the demons' chief weapons are pride, vainglory, and enmity among brothers, and points to Christ's washing of feet as the example of humility.
Letter 5.1Antony the Great · before 356 · Antony urges his children, sons of Israel in spirit, to cry to God day and night, and tells them that their negligence grieves the saints while their progress gladdens them and God.
Homilies on the Psalms 4.12Asterius the Sophist · ca. 320-341 · text not on this site
Homilies on the Psalms 5.8Asterius the Sophist · ca. 320-341 · text not on this site
Homilies on the Psalms 5.25Asterius the Sophist · ca. 320-341 · text not on this site
Homilies on the Psalms 29.7Asterius the Sophist · ca. 320-341 · text not on this site
1Anonymous · 4th–5th century · Forty Cappadocian soldiers refuse to sacrifice under Licinius and are imprisoned.
2Anonymous · 4th–5th century · In prison the Forty sing Psalm 91 and Christ appears to them.
4Anonymous · 4th–5th century · Cyrion recalls God's help in battle and leads them in Psalm 54.
Martyrdom of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste 6Anonymous · 4th–5th century · In prison the Forty sing Psalm 123 and Christ encourages them.
8Anonymous · 4th–5th century · One soldier deserts to the bath and dies; the rest pray from the frozen lake.
Canon 20Anonymous · 325 · No one is to kneel for prayer on Sundays or during the fifty days of Easter; prayers then are said standing.
On the Paschal Feast 5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337 · Eusebius explains that during the fifty days of Pentecost Christians neither kneel nor fast, as an image of the rest of the resurrection ending with the Ascension, and that Christ suffered at Passover because the Jewish lamb was a type of him.
Book 1, lines 571–593Juvencus · ca. 330 · Be perfect like the Father; give and pray in secret; the Lord's Prayer begins.
Book 1, lines 594–618Juvencus · ca. 330 · The end of the Lord's Prayer; forgiveness; fasting in secret; treasure in heaven.
Book 1, lines 668–691Juvencus · ca. 330 · Ask, seek, knock; the golden rule; the narrow gate and the broad way; beware false prophets.
Book 3, lines 371–394Juvencus · ca. 330 · Faith like a mustard seed; prayer and fasting; the temple tax and the coin in the fish.
Book 4, lines 490–514Juvencus · ca. 330 · Jesus prays that the cup may pass but submits to the Father's will; the disciples sleep; Judas arrives with an armed crowd.
Letter to Marcellinus 10Athanasius of Alexandria · uncertain, after 335 · Unlike the other books, the Psalter portrays the movements of each reader's soul and gives him the very words with which to repent, endure, give thanks, and praise.
Letter to Marcellinus 11Athanasius of Alexandria · uncertain, after 335 · Readers take the words of the patriarchs and prophets as others' words, but the Psalms they speak as their own.
Letter to Marcellinus 12Athanasius of Alexandria · uncertain, after 335 · The Psalms are a mirror in which the singer recognizes his own soul and its movements.
Letter to Marcellinus 14Athanasius of Alexandria · uncertain, after 335 · Athanasius classifies the psalms by kind—narrative, prayer, petition, confession, prophecy, praise, thanksgiving, and others.
Letter to Marcellinus 15Athanasius of Alexandria · uncertain, after 335 · Athanasius begins a guide to which psalm to use in each circumstance: blessing, persecution, thanksgiving, morning prayer, fear of God's threat, and conspiracy.
Letter to Marcellinus 16Athanasius of Alexandria · uncertain, after 335 · Further psalms for occasions: praise for salvation, the winepress song, Christ's victory, trust under trouble, refuge from wickedness, and long persecution.
Letter to Marcellinus 17Athanasius of Alexandria · uncertain, after 335 · Psalms for those who hear blasphemy, seek to know the citizen of heaven, are surrounded by enemies, marvel at creation, comfort the afflicted, or dedicate a house.
Letter to Marcellinus 18Athanasius of Alexandria · uncertain, after 335 · Psalms for the persecuted, the newly baptized, common worship, rescue from enemies, rejecting the heretics' claim that evil is natural, warning against envy of the wicked, mercy to the poor, and remembering God's past benefits.
Letter to Marcellinus 20Athanasius of Alexandria · uncertain, after 335 · Psalms for repentance, slander, betrayal, hiding from a persecutor, escape, false friends, hypocrites, flight to the desert, and enemies who lie in wait.
Letter to Marcellinus 21Athanasius of Alexandria · uncertain, after 335 · Psalms for praise, teaching on the resurrection, mercy, the prosperity of the wicked, God's anger, confession, shaming pagans and heretics, distress, the desecration of God's house, and feasts.
Letter to Marcellinus 22Athanasius of Alexandria · uncertain, after 335 · Psalms for when enemies threaten God's house, for longing for his dwelling, for release from captivity, against schisms, for confidence in God, and for the Sabbath and the Lord's day.
Letter to Marcellinus 23Athanasius of Alexandria · uncertain, after 335 · Psalms for the days of the week—Monday, Friday (the day of the cross), Wednesday (the day of betrayal)—and for the rebuilding of God's house, the Lord's reign, instruction, and approach to the Judge.
Letter to Marcellinus 24Athanasius of Alexandria · uncertain, after 335 · Psalms for discouragement, blessing God, praise, faith in prayer, spiritual progress (the Songs of Ascents), repentance after captivity to sinful thoughts, testing, and a tyrant enemy.
Letter to Marcellinus 25Athanasius of Alexandria · uncertain, after 335 · Psalms for blessing God's goodness, for singing to the Lord, for one raised to office among his brethren (the 151st), and for psalms with the Alleluia response.
Letter to Marcellinus 27Athanasius of Alexandria · uncertain, after 335 · The Psalms are sung not for pleasure but so that God is praised with full voice and so that the singer's soul is brought into harmony with itself.
Letter to Marcellinus 28Athanasius of Alexandria · uncertain, after 335 · Melodious psalmody is an image of the harmony of a soul guided by the mind of Christ; the Psalms calm, heal, correct, and strengthen it.
Letter to Marcellinus 29Athanasius of Alexandria · uncertain, after 335 · Psalms must be sung with understanding; then, like David's playing before Saul, they bring the soul into order and calm, as the body's members become strings for the Spirit.
Letter to Marcellinus 30Athanasius of Alexandria · uncertain, after 335 · Every human need is provided for in the Psalms; they should be used in their own words, not embellished, so that the saints and the Spirit who spoke in them may pray with us.
Letter to Marcellinus 32Athanasius of Alexandria · uncertain, after 335 · Those who pray the Psalms will be heard and protected; Scripture itself shows the power of God's words, as with Moses' Song, Deuteronomy in Joshua's and Josiah's days, and the ark of the law.
Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 5.5Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · Constantine prays for God's kingdom, values earthly rule little, is unmoved by armies and acclaim, and laughs at the trappings of power, wearing virtues instead.
Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 9.10Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · Constantine taught his soldiers to pray with raised hands and to keep Sunday as the day of prayer.
Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 9.11Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · In the palace Constantine prayed and heard Scripture, and his household was staffed by devout men.
Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 16.9Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · Christ alone spread his teaching worldwide, abolished barbarous customs, endured constant persecution and flourished, founded a new nation, turned Egypt from animal worship, gave power over demons, and established bloodless sacrifices.
Demonstration 2.15Aphrahat · 337-345 · The Lord's Prayer, the command to be reconciled before offering, and the parable of the unforgiving servant all require forgiveness.
Demonstration 3.14Aphrahat · 337-345 · Daniel's three-week fast was heard; Gabriel, who presents prayers, and Michael, Israel's prince who fought for Israel throughout its history, came to his aid.
Demonstration 4.1Aphrahat · 337-345 · Pure prayer, in silence and cleanness of heart, has done great things throughout the history of God's people.
Demonstration 4.2Aphrahat · 337-345 · Abel's offering was accepted for his purity of heart, shown by fire from heaven consuming it; Cain's deceit came out in his murder of his brother.
Demonstration 4.4Aphrahat · 337-345 · The prayers of Abraham and Isaac brought victory, children, and the promise of blessing for the nations.
Demonstration 4.5Aphrahat · 337-345 · Jacob's vision at Bethel prefigured Christ as the gate of heaven, the cross as the ladder, and the anointed nations as the anointed stone.
Demonstration 4.6Aphrahat · 337-345 · Jacob's vision, his crossing of the Jordan with a staff, the stone on the well, and his two companies are read as mysteries of Christ, baptism, and the church of Jews and Gentiles.
Demonstration 4.7Aphrahat · 337-345 · Moses' prayer brought the plagues, the Red Sea crossing, manna, water from the rock, and victories; Joshua's prayer divided the Jordan and stopped the sun.
Demonstration 4.8Aphrahat · 337-345 · Hannah, Samuel, David, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, Jonah, the three young men, and Daniel all prevailed through prayer.
Demonstration 4.10Aphrahat · 337-345 · Christ's command to pray in secret with the door shut means praying in the heart with the mouth closed, since God knows the heart's will.
Demonstration 4.11Aphrahat · 337-345 · Christ's presence with 'two or three' is explained as the person, Christ dwelling in him, and God in Christ, so that one who prays alone is not alone.
Demonstration 4.12Aphrahat · 337-345 · Moses, Elijah, Jonah, and Elisha, though alone in prayer, were heard because God was with them.
Demonstration 4.13Aphrahat · 337-345 · Prayer is a sacrifice presented to God by an angel, who will not carry up the prayer of one who asks forgiveness but does not forgive.
Demonstration 4.14Aphrahat · 337-345 · Works that give God rest, like relieving the weary and needy, are themselves prayer; one should not put off a needed act of mercy for the hour of prayer.
Demonstration 4.16Aphrahat · 337-345 · Prayer joined to good works, forgiveness, and sincerity is powerful; doing God's will does not excuse neglecting prayer.
Demonstration 4.17Aphrahat · 337-345 · Prayer takes three forms, supplication, thanksgiving, and praise, to be used according to one's circumstances, as David did.
Demonstration 4.18Aphrahat · 337-345 · Prayer is the true sacrifice and must be without blemish; Isaiah shows that blood-stained hands make sacrifices and prayers unacceptable.
Demonstration 12.13Aphrahat · 337-345 · The yearly feast requires fasting, prayer, praise, psalms, baptism, and blessings, but more important is a clean heart and right living every day.
Demonstration 14.14Aphrahat · 337-345 · A hymn to love, the great commandment, which covers sins and overcomes all evils; then a prayer to God, who patiently spares the wicked for the sake of the righteous who stand in the breach.
Demonstration 14.17Aphrahat · 337-345 · The clergy are called to humble themselves and not to despise God's ministry, lest they be rejected from the priesthood.
Demonstration 14.43Aphrahat · 337-345 · Envy and strife divide families and destroy peoples; the evil one plants them in the heart, chokes the good seed, makes prayer hollow, and lures the quarrelsome like a bird into a snare; only pursuing peace heals.
Demonstration 15.2Aphrahat · 337-345 · Paul teaches that God's creatures are good and sanctified by the word of God and prayer, so scruples about Gentile food are a weak conscience.
Demonstration 19.8Aphrahat · 337-345 · Daniel, knowing Jeremiah's prophecy of seventy years against the false prophets' promise of two, prayed his great confession for the return from Babylon.
Life of Constantine 1.39.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Rome welcomed Constantine as its liberator, and he gave thanks to God for the victory.
Life of Constantine 1.48.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · At his tenth anniversary Constantine offered thanksgiving, but was troubled by reports from the East.
Life of Constantine 2.2.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Churches were destroyed or closed, since Licinius believed Christians prayed only for Constantine.
Life of Constantine 2.4.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Constantine took bishops with him; Licinius mocked this and consulted diviners, who promised him victory.
Life of Constantine 2.12.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Before battle Constantine prayed in a tent outside the camp, like Moses.
Life of Constantine 2.12.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · After prayer Constantine received divine signs and at once ordered attacks that brought swift victory.
Life of Constantine 2.14.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Before the battle Constantine withdrew to his tent to pray and fast, praying even for the enemy.
Life of Constantine 2.55.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Constantine prays for God's mercy on the East, recalling that he fought under God's sign.
Life of Constantine 2.55.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Constantine dedicates his soul to God and promises to rebuild the churches.
Life of Constantine 2.56.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Pagans may keep their temples; Christians pray that they too will share the truth.
Life of Constantine 3.21.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · He asked for their prayers and sent them home united.
Life of Constantine 4.10.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Constantine worships God without blood sacrifice or earthly pomp.
Life of Constantine 4.14.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · In peace, Constantine prayed and asked the bishops to pray for him.
Life of Constantine 4.15.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Constantine's coins showed him looking up in prayer.
Life of Constantine 4.15.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Portraits over palace gates showed him praying with raised hands.
Life of Constantine 4.17.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Constantine read Scripture and led prayers in the palace like a church.
Life of Constantine 4.18.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Sunday was set apart for prayer, and the palace guards observed it too.
Life of Constantine 4.18.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Christian soldiers were free to attend church on Sunday.
Life of Constantine 4.19.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Non-Christian soldiers were to assemble on Sundays to recite a set prayer to the one God.
Life of Constantine 4.20.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The soldiers' Sunday prayer thanked the one God for victory and prayed for the emperor.
Life of Constantine 4.22.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Constantine prayed daily in private and kept Easter with special devotion.
Life of Constantine 4.45.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Others expounded Scripture or offered the Eucharist and prayers; Eusebius too preached at the dedication.
Life of Constantine 4.56.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The bishops eagerly agreed to go and pray for the army.
Life of Constantine 4.56.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · A tent-church was prepared for the campaign.
Life of Constantine 4.57.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Persians sought peace; Constantine kept the Easter vigil.
Life of Constantine 4.60.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Constantine intended the church as his burial place, to share in the prayers offered for the apostles.
Life of Constantine 4.61.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Falling ill, Constantine went to the hot baths and then prayed at a martyrs' shrine in Helenopolis.
Life of Constantine 4.63.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Constantine gave thanks for the blessings of baptism.
Life of Constantine 4.71.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The clergy and people held a Christian funeral and prayed for Constantine's soul.
Life of Constantine 4.71.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Buried among the apostles and remembered in the liturgy, Constantine still seemed to reign.
Letter 2Ammonas · ca. 340-360 · Love of God leads through fear, tears and joy to a divine power that drives off Satan, which few hermits acquire because few labour for it.
Letter 3Ammonas · ca. 340-360 · Works done to please men are not heard by God; Ammonas urges his disciples to fight the spirit of vainglory and to rekindle their fervour, as David did.
Letter 4Ammonas · ca. 340-360 · Ammonas prays that his sons may receive the discernment that Paul sought for his churches, and warns them against companions whose talk quenches the Spirit.
Letter 5Ammonas · ca. 340-360 · Ammonas remembers his disciples in prayer as Paul remembered Timothy, and hopes to visit them to impart what he cannot write.
Letter 7Ammonas · ca. 340-360 · As Jacob received his fathers’ blessing and saw the angels, so Ammonas prays that his obedient disciples may receive the fathers’ blessing and be kept from the Evil One.
Letter 8Ammonas · ca. 340-360 · Ammonas urges his disciples to ask for the Holy Spirit without doubting, promising that those who receive him live as though already in the kingdom and pray for others as Moses did.
Letter 9Ammonas · ca. 340-360 · Temptation follows every blessing, as with Jacob, Abraham and the saints; those who keep praying through the Spirit’s withdrawal receive a greater joy.
Sermon text 12.1Eusebius of Emesa · ca. 340-359 · text not on this site
Epistle to the Monks 2Serapion of Thmuis · ca. 340-362 · Nothing has turned the monks from their purpose; living righteously, they need not fear earthly rulers.
Epistle to the Monks 3Serapion of Thmuis · ca. 340-362 · The monks' prayers are the world's light and bring rain and the Nile's flood, as Elijah's prayer did.
Epistle to the Monks 4Serapion of Thmuis · ca. 340-362 · Like Abraham for Sodom, Job for his friends, and Moses for Israel, the monks intercede for Alexandria.
Epistle to the Monks 10Serapion of Thmuis · ca. 340-362 · The monks have disciplined every sense, eyes, hands, feet, smell, taste, toward God.
Epistle to the Monks 11Serapion of Thmuis · ca. 340-362 · The monks are soldiers of the consubstantial Trinity; their prayers sustain the world, and they will see the saints and Christ.
Epistle to the Monks 13Serapion of Thmuis · ca. 340-362 · The fame of the Egyptian monks, Antony, Amoun, John, and Macarius, reached cities and kings.
Canon 2Anonymous · 341 · Those who attend church but refuse the common prayer or the eucharist are to be excluded until they repent, and no one may pray with the excommunicated.
Canon 18Anonymous · ca. 343–381 · The same prayers are to be said at the ninth hour and at evening.
Canon 19Anonymous · ca. 343–381 · The order of the liturgy: prayers for catechumens and penitents after the sermon, three prayers of the faithful, the kiss of peace, then the offering; only clergy enter the sanctuary.
Canon 33Anonymous · ca. 343–381 · Christians are not to pray with heretics or schismatics.
Historical Fragments 1.5.1.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · The council asks Constantius to hear its legates, keep the old faith unchanged, and let the bishops detained at Ariminum return to their churches.
Historical Fragments 2.7.2.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · Liberius asks the confessors' prayers and a full report of what happened at Milan.
Catechetical Lecture 0.16Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Cyril praises the gifts of baptism and warns of the dragon who lies in wait, urging prayer, vigilance, and resistance to mockery of the rite.
Catechetical Lecture 1.5Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Lent is the time for confession, attention to the instructions, and prayer; the Spirit is given in proportion to each one’s faith.
Catechetical Lecture 2.13Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Solomon, Ahab, Jeroboam, Manasseh, and Hezekiah all show that confession and repentance obtain God’s mercy, even reversing a pronounced sentence.
Catechetical Lecture 4.14Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Christ ascended, and the worldwide power of the cross proves it; believers should seal themselves with the sign of the cross in every action.
Catechetical Lecture 4.22Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Lawful marriage observes times for prayer, comes to church clean, and seeks children rather than mere pleasure.
Catechetical Lecture 4.37Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Closing warnings: flee the devil’s works, divination, magic, licentiousness, greed, pagan shows, amulets, Samaritan and Jewish observances, and heretics; guard the soul by fasting, prayer, almsgiving, and Scripture.
Catechetical Lecture 5.9Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Lazarus was raised through his sisters’ faith; even those of little faith may pray for faith, which is partly ours and mostly God’s gift.
Catechetical Lecture 6.16Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Simon Magus, the first heretic, claimed to be Father, Son, and Spirit, and was brought down by the prayer of Peter and Paul; after him came Cerinthus, Menander, Carpocrates, the Ebionites, and Marcion, who cut the Old Testament testimonies out of the New.
Catechetical Lecture 7.5Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The perfect Father begot a perfect Son and is glorified together with him.
Catechetical Lecture 7.7Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Christ distinguishes “my Father” (by nature) from “your Father” (by adoption); believers call God Father by grace.
Catechetical Lecture 7.13Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Good works glorify the Father, who cares for our needs.
Catechetical Lecture 9.7Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Darkness and night are good gifts of the one Creator, and the stars, clouds, rain, snow and the fruits of the earth all display his wisdom.
Catechetical Lecture 15.23Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Judge shows no partiality to rich or poor; every good deed, including faithful marriage and chastity, and every sin committed after baptism is recorded.
Catechetical Lecture 16.20Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Spirit inspires virginity, poverty and victory over demons, and as Paraclete strengthens martyrs with the vision of paradise.
Catechetical Lecture 17.37Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Paraclete guards the faithful and gives gifts to those who do not grieve him; Cyril prays that the Spirit be sent on the candidates as at Pentecost.
Catechetical Lecture 23.4Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · "Lift up your hearts": at the Eucharist the heart must be with God, not on earthly cares.
Catechetical Lecture 23.6Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The thanksgiving recalls all creation and the angelic orders and joins the seraphim's "Holy, holy, holy".
Catechetical Lecture 23.8Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Over the eucharistic sacrifice the church prays for peace, rulers, soldiers, the sick, and all in need.
Catechetical Lecture 23.9Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The liturgy commemorates the saints, asking their intercession, and prays for the departed faithful.
Catechetical Lecture 23.10Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · An illustration of a king moved by a crown offered for exiles defends praying for the departed, for whom Christ sacrificed is offered.
Catechetical Lecture 23.11Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Lord's Prayer follows; God's love lets sinners call him Father, and those who bear the heavenly image are themselves "heavens".
Catechetical Lecture 23.12Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · God's name is holy by nature; the petition asks that it be hallowed in us.
Catechetical Lecture 23.13Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Only a soul cleansed from the reign of sin can pray "Your kingdom come" with boldness.
Catechetical Lecture 23.14Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The petition asks that God's will be done in us as it is among the angels.
Catechetical Lecture 23.15Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The "epiousios" bread of the Lord's Prayer is the holy bread that nourishes the substance of the soul.
Catechetical Lecture 23.16Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Since our sins against God are great and others' against us small, we must forgive in order to be forgiven.
Catechetical Lecture 23.17Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · "Lead us not into temptation" means not being overwhelmed by temptation, as Judas was and Peter was not.
Catechetical Lecture 23.18Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The evil one is the devil; the "Amen" seals the Lord's Prayer.
On the Decrees of Nicaea 30Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 350–356 · Calling God “Father,” as Christ taught in prayer and baptism, is truer than calling him “unoriginate,” because it names the Son as well.
Long recension, Ephesians 8Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius praises the Ephesians for refusing false teachers, contrasts the Spirit of truth with the spirit of error, and urges them to pray for and answer their opponents with gentleness.
Long recension, Ephesians 21Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius closes, asking for the Ephesians' prayers for the church of Antioch.
Long recension, Magnesians 5Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius sets life and death before the Magnesians, describes the true and counterfeit coin of godly and ungodly, and urges them to act in concord under bishop, presbyters and deacons.
Long recension, Magnesians 13Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius urges the Magnesians to stand firm in the decrees of the Lord and the apostles, asks prayer for the church in Syria, and sends greetings.
Long recension, Trallians 12Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius greets the Trallians, urges concord and care for the bishop, and asks their prayers.
Long recension, Romans 9Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius commends the church in Syria to the Romans' prayers and closes his letter from Smyrna.
Long recension, Smyrnaeans 11Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius reports that the church of Antioch is at peace and asks the Smyrnaeans to send a messenger with a letter of congratulation.
Long recension, Polycarp 1Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius exhorts Polycarp to fulfil his office as bishop with diligence, care for unity, patience and prayer.
Long recension, Polycarp 3Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius urges Polycarp to pray, to stand firm like an anvil against false teachers, and to look for Christ, timeless, invisible and impassible, yet for us born and suffering.
Long recension, Tarsians 10Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Closing greetings to the Tarsians from Philippi.
Defence before Constantius 10Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 353–357 · Athanasius recalls that at Alexandria he led the people in prayer for Constantius’s safety after Constans’s death, with officials as witnesses.
Defence before Constantius 12Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 353–357 · Athanasius appeals to God to incline the emperor to the truth, and asks Constantius to question the accusers, whose faces will betray them.
Defence before Constantius 14Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 353–357 · Athanasius answers the charge of using the great church before its dedication: the Easter crowds were too large for the small churches, and his predecessors and others had done the same.
Defence before Constantius 17Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 353–357 · Athanasius answers the objection that prayer should not have been held in the unfinished church, citing the returning exiles who worshiped at the site before the temple was rebuilt, and invites the emperor to dedicate it.
Commentary on Matthew 5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · Hilary treats secret prayer, fasting, treasure in heaven, the eye as lamp, the two masters, freedom from anxiety (applied to the resurrection body), the lilies as angels, the grass as the nations destined for fire, and judging and the beam in the eye.
Commentary on Matthew 6Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · Holy things are not to be given to dogs (pagans) or pigs (heretics); Hilary treats asking and receiving, the golden rule, the narrow gate, false prophets known by fruits, and the houses on rock and sand.
Commentary on Matthew 31Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · In Gethsemane, Hilary argues against those (who deny the Son’s eternity) who say Christ feared death: his sorrow “even to death” was for the disciples, lest they deny his divinity, and his prayer that the cup pass from him asks that his strength in suffering pass to them.
Life of Antony 3Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Antony placed his sister with consecrated virgins, began an ascetic life near his village, learned from older ascetics, worked, prayed, and memorized the Scriptures.
Life of Antony 34Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · The aim of discipline and prayer is to please God and defeat the devil, not to foreknow; a pure soul can see further than demons, as Elisha did.
Life of Antony 48Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Without opening his door, Antony sent away an officer whose daughter was possessed, telling him to pray in faith, and she was healed; many others were healed outside his cell.
Life of Antony 51Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Alone on the inner mountain in old age, Antony fought visible and invisible demons with prayer, trusting in the Lord, and even the wild beasts were at peace with him.
Life of Antony 54Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · On a journey to the outer monasteries Antony’s prayer brought water from the ground in the waterless desert; he found the monks thriving and his sister leading a community of virgins.
Life of Antony 55Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Antony’s counsel to monks: faith, love of God, purity, psalmody, memorizing Scripture, daily self-examination, not letting the sun set on any sin, and writing down one’s thoughts as if others would read them.
Life of Antony 56Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Antony prayed for the sick without boasting or complaint, teaching that healing comes from God alone and that thanks are due to God, not to him.
Life of Antony 61Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · At the request of Count Archelaus, Antony prayed for the sick virgin Polycratia of Laodicea, who was healed at the very hour of his prayer.
Life of Antony 84Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Antony healed by prayer in Christ’s name, not by command, and though he loved solitude he came down when needed to counsel judges to do justice.
Hymns 1.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · An alphabetical hymn to Christ, eternally begotten of the Father and born of the Virgin, celebrating the Son's full equality and mutual indwelling with the Father; it breaks off at the letter T.
On the Trinity 1.37Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary prays to God the Father for the help of the Spirit to preach him truly as Father of the only-begotten Son.
On the Trinity 1.38Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary prays for grace to confess the one unbegotten Father and the one Lord Jesus Christ, true God born from him.
On the Trinity 2.31Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Jesus' words “God is spirit” to the Samaritan woman teach that God is not confined to a place, and do not abolish the distinct name and gift of the Holy Spirit.
On the Trinity 6.19Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary prays to the Father that he learned from Moses, the prophets, and the Gospels to worship God not as solitary but with his only-begotten Son.
On the Trinity 6.21Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary tells God he cannot unlearn the faith he received from Scripture: the Son, begotten by God's power, has all that is the Father's.
On the Trinity 10.37Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Christ's sorrow and prayer in Gethsemane were for his disciples, who would be offended and needed to watch and pray (Matt 26:31–41).
On the Trinity 10.38Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · "If it is possible" refers to men's weakness under trial; Christ prayed that Peter's faith would not fail (Luke 22:31–32).
On the Trinity 10.40Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Luke's account of the strengthening angel explains why Christ, after praying, let the disciples sleep (Matt 26:45; Luke 22:43–44).
On the Trinity 10.42Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · John 17:11–12 shows the content of Christ's prayer: that the Father would keep the disciples, and none of them was lost (John 18:9).
On the Trinity 10.43Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Taken together, the four Gospels show that Christ's Gethsemane prayer was for the protection of his apostles.
On the Trinity 10.71Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Like his prayer at Lazarus's tomb and the voice from heaven, Christ's cry on the cross was for our instruction, not from weakness.
On the Trinity 12.52Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary prays that he will always confess God as eternal Father, never without his Word, Wisdom, and Power, the only-begotten Son.
On the Trinity 12.54Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Son is truly Son, begotten in the unity of the Father's nature, second from the Father yet never separate, so the Father is eternally Father.
On the Trinity 12.55Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary will not call the Holy Spirit a creature either: the Spirit who searches God's depths and intercedes for us (1 Cor 2:10; Rom 8:26) is God's own.
On the Trinity 12.57Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary closes with a prayer to keep to death the baptismal faith in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
On Not Sparing Those Who Sin against God 19Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer says the bishops pray for the emperor as Paul commands, but must also rebuke him publicly without partiality, as Paul charged Timothy, and must, like the apostles beaten by the council, go on preaching Christ.
Defence of His Flight 24Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357 · Athanasius describes the night attack of Syrianus on the church, his insistence on staying on his throne until the people had left, and how the monks and clergy led him out unseen through the soldiers.
Letters to Serapion 1.33Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Athanasius closes the letter: true worshipers worship the Father in Spirit and truth, and those who make the Spirit a creature risk the unpardonable sin.
History of the Arians 25Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357 · Athanasius describes his welcome home in 346: the Palestinian bishops received him, and Alexandria rejoiced with a flowering of asceticism, charity, and peace.
Letter 2Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil describes to Gregory of Nazianzus the solitary life: quiet, withdrawal from the world, Scripture reading, prayer, speech, dress, food, and sleep.
Letter 30Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil tells Eusebius of his mother's death, his renewed illness, and the state of the churches, and asks for his prayers.
Letter 42Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Counsel to a young hermit: persevere to the end, advance gradually, avoid relatives, crowds, and money, read Scripture, and answer the thought that urges a return to the city with the evils seen there.
Letter 123Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil, beset by troubles, begs the monk Urbicius to come to him and to pray that he may stay thankful to God in adversity.
Letter 155Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil answers an officer in Scythia who had accused him of neglect, assures him that he is remembered in the church's prayers, and asks him to send home relics of martyrs from the persecution there.
Letter 174Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil counsels a widow to keep the day of judgment before her eyes, to pray, and not to despair of God's goodness.
Letter 195Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil greets Euphronius of Colonia and asks his prayers for the return of the exiled bishops.
Letter 207Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil answers the clergy of Neocaesarea, who opposed him over doctrine, his monks, and his night psalmody, defending the antiphonal psalmody common to the churches and urging them to keep the faith of Gregory Thaumaturgus.
Letters 212, 213Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil regrets missing his old friend Hilarius and laments the slanders spread against him by Anomoeans and the party of the middle way; then (Letter 213) he thanks a pious friend for a consoling letter and asks his advice about a summons to court.
Letter 241Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil tells Eusebius that he writes of his troubles not to burden him but to find relief and to rouse him to persistent prayer, like Moses against Amalek.
Letter 256Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil sympathizes with a group of monks whose dwellings were burned after Easter by Arian opponents, and asks them to pray night and day for the peace of the Churches.
Letter 360Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · A confession of faith in the Trinity and the incarnation, with the invocation of saints and the veneration of their images, presented as an extract from a letter of Basil to Julian.
Against Arius 2.8Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus traces the scriptural roots of ousia in epiousios bread (Matt 6:11) and the people periousios (Titus 2:14), arguing that homoousion is formed in the same way and rightly excludes heretics.
Against Arius 3.13Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus reads John 14:6–14 to show that Father, Son and Spirit are one, and that to ask in Christ's name is to ask for eternal life and spiritual things, not worldly goods.
On the Generation of the Divine Word 32Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus ends with a prayer asking forgiveness for speaking of God and confessing the Father, the Son and the Spirit.
Hymns on the Trinity 1Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus's first hymn invokes Father, Son and Holy Spirit and sets out in verse his teaching that the Son is the motion and life of the Father's rest, one substance with him, and the Spirit the bond who returns all to the Father.
Hymns on the Trinity 2Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus's second hymn is a litany of “Have mercy, Lord; have mercy, Christ”, confessing the Son's consubstantial life and asking for help in turning from the world to God.
Hymns on the Trinity 3Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus's third hymn is a litany to the blessed Trinity, naming Father, Son and Spirit through triads such as substance, form and knowledge, love, grace and communion, and fountain, river and watering.
Oratio (Ephemeris 3), lines 1-23Decimus Magnus Ausonius · ca. 360-390 · The opening of Ausonius’s morning prayer: God known only to the devout mind, and the Son, the Word through whom all was made, who suffered and opened the way back to eternal life.
Oratio (Ephemeris 3), lines 24-43Decimus Magnus Ausonius · ca. 360-390 · Ausonius prays, through the Son, for a mind proof against the serpent and for the way to heaven taken by Elijah and Enoch.
Oratio (Ephemeris 3), lines 44-66Decimus Magnus Ausonius · ca. 360-390 · Ausonius confesses faith in the Father, the Only-begotten and the Spirit, renounces pagan worship and divination, and asks for a blameless, modest life.
Oratio (Ephemeris 3), lines 67-85Decimus Magnus Ausonius · ca. 360-390 · The close of the morning prayer: Ausonius asks for health, peace and a calm death, and commends his prayer to Christ, true God from true God, light from light.
Versus paschales, lines 1-23Decimus Magnus Ausonius · ca. 360-395 · Ausonius’s Easter verses: the Father who gives eternal life, sent the prophets, and gave his Son, equal to him, who joined the Spirit’s work in baptism; the threefold faith.
Homilies on the Psalms 1.2Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · Basil continues his praise of psalmody, explains why the Psalms are sung to the psaltery, and begins on the opening verse of Psalm 1 as the foundation of the whole book.
Homilies on the Psalms 28.5Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · Basil explains Ps 29:6–11: Christ is the “unicorn” as having the one power of the Father; God's voice divides the fire of judgment into light and burning, makes the desert fruitful, prepares the “deer” (the saints) and uncovers the thickets of sin; he rebukes chatter in church, and reads the flood as baptism.
Homilies on the Psalms 29.3Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · On Ps 30:2–4 Basil teaches that God answers at once, that the soul is raised from Hades and the pit of sin by Christ, and that only the holy truly sing psalms.
Homilies on the Psalms 29.6Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · Basil explains Ps 30:7–12: God turns his face away to test us; true crying is for heavenly things; we should not pamper the flesh, which buries the mind; the Lord turns mourning into joy for those who lament their sins; and the glory that sings is the Spirit in the just.
Homilies on the Psalms 32.1Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · Basil expounds Ps 33:1–5: the righteous rejoice in God himself; praise befits only the upright; the cithara and ten-stringed psaltery are bodily deeds and the mind keeping the ten commandments; the new song is the spiritual sense; all creation leads to faith; and God joins mercy to judgment.
Homilies on the Psalms 33.2Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · Basil expounds Ps 34:1–7: blessing God at all times, even in affliction; praise as the soul's continual thought of God; boasting only in the Lord; the meek magnifying God together in quiet contemplation; affliction proving the saints; enlightenment of those who come to Christ the true light; voluntary poverty, of which Christ is the model; and the angel who guards the God-fearing.
Homilies on the Psalms 33.12Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · On Ps 34:17–19 Basil teaches that the righteous cry in the heart for heavenly things; the Lord's nearness to the brokenhearted foretells his coming in the flesh; spiritual humility differs from the degradation of sin; and afflictions are the athlete's contest from which God delivers.
Homilies on the Psalms 45.1Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · Basil explains the title of Ps 46 (the end, the sons of Korah, the hidden things) and begins on its first verse: everyone needs a refuge, but the devil confuses the choice of a savior; Christians too seek health or wealth that may harm them, and run to enchanters, amulets, doctors and dream-interpreters instead of to God, the one refuge.
Homilies on the Psalms 45.8Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · On Ps 46:10–11 Basil teaches that God can be known only by those free from worldly cares and passions, contrasting good leisure for God with the Athenians' idle curiosity and the empty house of the parable; “I will be exalted” foretells the cross, and the repeated refrain is the believer's triumph in Christ, our peace.
Homilies on the Psalms 59.4Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · On Ps 60:8–12 Basil reads Moab, “the pot of washing,” as baptism, which admits even the excluded Moabite to the Church; the shoe cast over Edom is Christ's flesh, the fortified city the Church; and help from affliction is the Christian's true help, as with Paul, since affliction produces endurance and hope, and the sick, the poor and the dishonored are to rejoice and pray rather than trust human help.
Homilies on the Psalms 114.1Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · Preaching at midday in a martyrs' shrine, where the people had sung hymns since midnight, Basil excuses his delay (he had been serving another church) and comments on Ps 116:1: only the perfect, freed from servile fear, can say “I have loved” God, the supreme good, and they love even the sufferings borne for him, as Paul did, knowing that God watches their contest.
Homilies on the Psalms 114.2Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · On Ps 116:1–9 Basil teaches that God “inclines his ear” in condescension, hearing even the unspoken groans of Moses and the blood of Abel; the saint calls on God all his days, and in the pangs of death and Hades willingly adds affliction to affliction out of love, or, as a penitent, the hardship of repentance; God's mercy and justice go together; he guards infants in the womb and the humble; and the soul's rest is the land of the living, where there is no death, change, sin, tears or want, unlike this world, where human beings die many times as they pass through the ages of life.
Moral Rules (Moralia) 57Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-370 · Rules 55 (every good is God's gift, and thanksgiving), 56 (on persevering in prayer, and how to pray) and 57 (against pride in one's good deeds), preceded in the scan by a repetition of Rule 54.
Moral Rules (Moralia) 65Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-370 · Basil's sixty-fifth rule: one must pray fittingly even at the moment of death.
Moral Rules (Moralia) 67Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-370 · Basil's sixty-sixth rule, that those who struggle for godliness must not be abandoned and must be prayed for, and his sixty-seventh, that those assured of the resurrection should not grieve over the dead.
Tractate 10, section 1Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · The sacrifices of Leviticus point to spiritual offerings: martyrdom, virginity, almsgiving, continence, purity of heart and prayer, the living sacrifice of the believer's life.
Letter 75Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory recalls how, while he expounded the psalm about the prosperity of the wicked, the sick Philagrius rose and thanked God for his suffering.
Letter 279Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory commends the presbyter Sacerdos to two friends; then he asks Bishop Amphilochius to pray for him and loose his sins when he consecrates the Eucharist.
Letter 281Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory thanks Helladius for his Easter letter and gifts, and asks him to pray that he may either keep the feast again or pass to the true feast in heaven.
Tractates on the Psalms 0.12Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Fifty is seven sevens completed by the eighth day; during the fifty days after Easter, and on Sundays, the apostles forbade kneeling and fasting.
Tractates on the Psalms 1.12Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Meditating on the law day and night means living it in every action, so that the whole life becomes unceasing prayer.
Tractates on the Psalms 14.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Dwelling in the church is the first step and involves labour; rest on the mountain follows and is undisturbed.
Tractates on the Psalms 14.11Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The righteous man does not reproach his neighbour in pride but corrects gently, as the humble tax collector rather than the Pharisee was justified.
Tractates on the Psalms 52.13Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God's people are distinct from those who devour them: persecutors, slanderers, and clergy who enrich themselves from the offerings; such do not truly call upon God.
Tractates on the Psalms 53.6Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Only Christ, who knows the Father and committed no sin, could confidently ask that his prayer and the words of his mouth be heard.
Tractates on the Psalms 53.9Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · After the diapsalma the prophet declares the answer to each petition: God helps, upholds the soul, and turns evil back on the enemies.
Tractates on the Psalms 54.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God hears every prayer, but only an innocent prayer obtains his "giving ear"; Christ asks this with confidence.
Tractates on the Psalms 54.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God gives ear (the Canaanite woman), despises worldly prayers (the man asking for his inheritance), and attends to silent faith (the woman touching his fringe).
Tractates on the Psalms 54.15Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Christ cried to the Lord and was heard; evening, morning, and noon signify the whole day, reckoned by the law from evening; God freed him and humbled his enemies.
Tractates on the Psalms 54.18Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · We should cast our care on God, who nourishes and keeps the righteous from being overwhelmed, as Christ teaches and as Jacob experienced.
Tractates on the Psalms 55.8Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The holy one's tears, shed by David for himself or by Christ for us, are before God and plead for his promises.
Tractates on the Psalms 56.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Trusting God, the holy one shelters under his wings, as chicks under a hen, until iniquity and the weakness of the body pass.
Tractates on the Psalms 60.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · "The ends of the earth" are the limits of the flesh, from which the believer, living in Christ yet groaning in the body, cries out.
Tractates on the Psalms 60.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Meanwhile the saint is protected under God's wings, a protection granted to the prayer of faith.
Tractates on the Psalms 61.6Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The prophet urges all to hope in God and pour out their hearts before him in tears.
Tractates on the Psalms 62.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · David in the desert, prefiguring Christ's sojourn in the wilderness, devotes his solitude to divine things.
Tractates on the Psalms 62.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The saint begins the day at dawn with prayer to God, whom he knows as his own.
Tractates on the Psalms 62.7Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The saint praises God by word and by deeds ("lifting up hands"); God's mercy surpasses both this life and the life in Abraham's bosom.
Tractates on the Psalms 62.8Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The saint offers not animal sacrifices but himself as a sacrifice of praise, the fat of the offerings figuring a soul filled with joyful praise.
Tractates on the Psalms 62.9Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Remembering God at night keeps the bed pure and makes morning prayer confident; God's protection guards against temptation.
Tractates on the Psalms 63.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The psalm is the prayer of every saint beset by philosophers, heretics, the greedy, the pleasure-loving, and the ambitious, against whom only vigilant prayer avails.
Tractates on the Psalms 63.6Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · We must pray always, not only when trouble comes, so that God rescues us from the fear of being overcome; faith, not fear, merits mercy.
Tractates on the Psalms 64.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Asceticism outside the church, of philosophers, magi, or heretics, is useless; vows of chastity and fasting are worthy only within the church, where the Spirit intercedes.
Tractates on the Psalms 64.12Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The signs that inspire fear include the church's morning and evening prayers, which open and close each day with God's praise.
Tractates on the Psalms 65.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The shout of joy is the church’s battle cry against the devil, heard in its prayers, hymns, and responses.
Tractates on the Psalms 65.24Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The martyrs’ vows are not animal sacrifices but the offering of themselves and the instruction of others; incense means prayers, rams priests, oxen tamed converts.
Tractates on the Psalms 65.28Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The cry of the mouth must be matched by inward devotion “under the tongue,” as in secret prayer.
Tractates on the Psalms 65.29Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God hears the prayer of one who harbors no iniquity in his heart, and the psalm ends in praise as it began.
Tractates on the Psalms 68.13Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Amid insults Christ turned wholly to prayer, knowing that his suffering was the “time of good pleasure” for human salvation.
Tractates on the Psalms 68.16Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Christ prays as a man in trouble, yet asks to be rescued not for his own sake but so that his enemies might be overthrown by his resurrection.
Tractates on the Psalms 91.10Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The true Sabbath is eternal rest, prepared for now by prayer, reading, fasting, humility, good works, chastity, and patience, as the Jews prepare on the eve of the Sabbath.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.1.15Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Though God lets us be tested, we must pray, as the psalmist and the Lord's Prayer do, not to be forsaken beyond our strength.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.5.12Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Against the excuse that all is God's gift and so ignorance is blameless, Hilary shows the psalmist joining prayer for God's gifts with human effort to seek and keep them.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.6.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The psalmist asks first for mercy, then for salvation, and grounds his confidence in God's word.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.7.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Wherever he sojourns, the psalmist sings God's justifications, teaching that the psalms should be kept in the heart and constantly sung.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.7.6Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The psalmist remembers God's name at night, when temptation is strongest, and fills the night with prayer and confession.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.8.15Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The psalmist rises at midnight, the hour of the Exodus, of the bridegroom's coming, and of Paul and Silas's release, to praise God's judgments.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.10.16Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Praying that the proud be put to shame is not a curse but a prayer for their repentance, in keeping with Christ's command to love enemies.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.19.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The nineteenth letter: the psalmist's cry is not of the voice, which the gospel forbids in prayer, but of the heart.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.19.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Like Abel's blood and Moses' silent prayer at the Red Sea, the cry of the heart reaches God; the Spirit cries "Abba" in believers.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.19.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The psalmist asks for salvation only after seeking to be heard and to know God's justifications, and promises to keep his testimonies, unlike those who demand salvation as a debt.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.19.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The psalmist rises before dawn to meditate on God's words in prophets, psalms, and the lives of the saints.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.19.6Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Though perfect in good works, the psalmist relies wholly on God's mercy, unlike those who think one fast or a small alms earns them a hearing.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.21.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Beyond doing the law, the psalmist praises seven times a day the judgments whose deeds, Sabbath, slave release, fallow year, jubilee, signify God's eternal plan.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.22.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The twenty-second and last letter: the psalmist's prayer draws near and enters God's presence, asking first for understanding and then for deliverance.
Tractates on the Psalms 119.18Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Like Paul and the saints, the psalmist longs to leave the body and dwell with God, praying for the coming of the kingdom.
Tractates on the Psalms 122.9Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The psalmist waits steadfastly for God's mercy, praying twice for it, with the perseverance with which sinners cling to their vices.
Tractates on the Psalms 125.10Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Though free, the psalmist prays "Turn back our captivity", joining in the confession of the whole people captive to sin, as the tax collector's confession justified him.
Tractates on the Psalms 129.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The cry 'out of the depths' may come from the depth of God's mysteries, of human calamity, or of secret prayer.
Tractates on the Psalms 129.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God is incorporeal spirit; his 'eyes' and 'ears' are names for his one undivided power, and though he hears all by nature, faith asks to be heard.
Tractates on the Psalms 129.7Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The 'eyes' and 'ears' of God may also be understood as the angels, who serve and carry prayers not because God needs them but because we are weak.
Tractates on the Psalms 133.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Lifting hands in the night means doing works of mercy in this dark age, the true evening sacrifice, given cheerfully as Moses' raised hands won the battle.
Tractates on the Psalms 134.22Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Like the petitions of the Lord's Prayer, 'your name is for ever' is a prayer for our sake, that God's name, kingdom, and will may abide in us.
Tractates on the Psalms 137.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The psalmist's 'I will confess' can mean praising God for hearing him or confessing sins now abandoned.
Tractates on the Psalms 137.11Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The righteous pray every day, since all days hold danger and the day of the Lord comes like a thief; God strengthens the soul to bear every trial.
Tractates on the Psalms 138.36Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Christ prays that the apostles be written in God's book, a higher dignity than the book of the living, as his prayer in John 17 shows.
Tractates on the Psalms 139.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The psalm might fit David's many dangers, but it is general, teaching all how to pray when beset by enemies.
Tractates on the Psalms 139.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The prayer for rescue from evil men fits all believers, but knowing the evil 'devised in the heart' belongs to God and Christ.
Tractates on the Psalms 139.8Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Only one who has renounced vice can truly say to the Lord, 'You are my God'.
Tractates on the Psalms 139.9Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Christ always confessed the Father as Lord and God and prayed to him, as at Lazarus's tomb, the feeding of the crowd, and Gethsemane.
Tractates on the Psalms 140.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Prayer is a cry of faith, not of the voice, as with Moses at the sea, Abel's blood, and the martyrs; God 'attends' to the inward voice of prayer.
Tractates on the Psalms 140.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Prayer rising like incense must be pure; the four spices of the temple incense correspond to the four kinds of prayer Paul lists.
Tractates on the Psalms 140.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Lifting the hands signifies lofty works, not merely a posture of prayer, as with Moses' raised hands and Paul's 'pure hands'.
Tractates on the Psalms 141.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The psalmist cries, prays aloud, pours out his prayer before the present God, and declares his trouble, persevering even when his spirit fails, unlike us whom small trials distract.
Tractates on the Psalms 142.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The psalmist asks to be heard, in God's truth (the true God, not idols) and in his righteousness, which takes account of human weakness.
Tractates on the Psalms 142.12Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · As Paul says, we do not know how to pray as we ought; the psalmist humbly asks God's teaching and seeks guidance for God's name's sake, not his own merit.
Tractates on the Psalms 144.21Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God, present everywhere, is near to those who call on him in truth, with faith rather than idle doubt.
Tractates on the Psalms 144.22Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God fulfils the will of those who fear him and pray, saving and guarding those who love him, and destroys sinners who neither feared, prayed, nor loved.
Three Letters to Sympronianus 3.23Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian answers that Moses did obtain mercy for Israel after the golden calf, since God relented at his prayer, though the people had not yet repented.
Three Letters to Sympronianus 3.24Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian argues that the saints’ intercession fails only for the unrepentant, cites Noah, Job, Daniel, Lot, and Paul, and appeals to Cyprian and to Tertullian’s catholic writing on repentance.
Paraenesis, or Exhortation to Penitence 10Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian rebukes penitents who live in luxury and describes the works of public penance: weeping before the church, squalid clothing, fasting, prayer, almsgiving, and abstaining from baths and banquets.
Titus of Bostra, Against the Manichees 2.27Titus of Bostra · ca. 360s · God sometimes withholds his common gifts so that people will ask and give thanks, recognizing him as the giver.
Commentary on Ephesians 1.16Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Prayer is either thanksgiving for what has been received or petition, and Paul first gives thanks for the Ephesians.
Commentary on Ephesians 1.17Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Paul’s petition names the God and Father of Jesus Christ, so that the Ephesians will not think of any other god, and asks that he give them the spirit of wisdom, since understanding of the truth is God’s gift.
Commentary on Ephesians 3.14Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Paul kneels in prayer to the Father, through whom all is done in Christ, and kneeling expresses the humility that prayer requires in body as well as mind.
Commentary on Ephesians 5.19Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Believers are to speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and songs, singing in their hearts, and give thanks always to the Father in the name of Christ.
Commentary on Ephesians 6.18Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Paul calls for constant prayer in the spirit, with real affection rather than recited words, distinguishing prayer (praise and thanksgiving) from supplication (asking pardon or grace), and for watchful attention in prayer for all the saints.
Commentary on Ephesians 6.19Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Prayer must be for others as well as oneself, leaders for the faithful and catechumens, and the faithful for their leaders, and Paul asks the Ephesians to pray that he may proclaim the mystery boldly.
Commentary on Philippians 4.6Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Free from worldly anxiety, the faithful should devote themselves to prayer with thanksgiving and ask God only for what befits them, chiefly the promised heavenly things.
Commentary on Philippians 4.7Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Those who pray rightly receive God’s peace, which brings full understanding of God and guards their hearts, and their bodies are kept in Christ for the resurrection.
Oration 5.23Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Like Hezekiah against Sennacherib, the Christians, helpless and promised as a sacrifice to Julian's demons, could only call on God.
Oration 5.27Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · During the persecution Christians cried to God in the words of the psalms.
Oration 6.1Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory breaks his silence for the sake of peace, and describes the ascetic life of the monks whose separation had grieved him.
Oration 7.17Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory offers his oration as a funeral gift in place of pagan honours, and prays that Caesarius may rest with Abraham and see God.
Oration 7.21Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory ends with a prayer commending Caesarius and the mourners to God.
Oration 8.10Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gorgonia rejected cosmetics and finery; she was wise, silent about doctrine, generous to the church and the poor, and outstanding in fasting, vigils, prayer, and tears.
Oration 8.14Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory apostrophizes Gorgonia's asceticism, her purity after baptism, and her victory over the legacy of Eve, and turns to the rewards God gave her in this life.
Oration 8.22Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · As Gorgonia died, her spiritual father heard her murmuring the psalm, “In peace I will lie down and sleep.”
Oration 16.10Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory imagines God reproaching the people, who were not corrected by the hailstorm as Egypt was by the plagues, warns of worse to come, and offers a prayer of confession for priest and people.
Oration 16.13Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory urges the people and clergy to repent with tears, fasting, and common mourning as Joel commanded, trusting that God’s nature is mercy, and warns them not to look back like Lot’s wife.
Oration 16.20Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory asks his father to teach the people generosity to the poor and, like Moses or Phinehas, to intercede so that God’s wrath may cease and both earthly and heavenly fruit be given.
Oration 18.4Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory asks Basil to assure the flock that Christ, the good Shepherd, still guards it and that the departed bishop now intercedes for it, and offers an outline of his father’s life.
Oration 18.9Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory lists his mother’s devotion in prayer, fasting, psalmody, and care for orphans, widows, and mourners.
Oration 18.28Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory tells how his father fell gravely ill at Easter while the people and his wife prayed for him in the church.
Oration 18.31Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory recalls a storm at sea, while he was still unbaptized, in which his parents’ prayers and a vision of his mother brought the ship safely to Rhodes, and he vowed himself to God.
Oration 37.24Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory closes with a prayer, urging his hearers to bear any loss except the loss of the Godhead, and confesses the worship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Oration 43.7Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · When the grandparents longed for better food, they prayed in faith, recalling God's wonders in the wilderness, and deer came of themselves to be taken.
Oration 43.59Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory describes Basil's death, with his last words from the Psalm, his vast funeral attended by Christians, pagans and Jews, his burial among the martyrs, and his intercession in heaven; he offers his life as a living law.
Oration 43.60Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory calls every class of Basil's people to join his praise, offers the oration to Basil, and asks his intercession and to be received with him into the contemplation of the Trinity.
Tractates 1.4.7Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno ends with a hymn to chastity, the treasure of souls and temple of God, which brings fruit thirty-, sixty- and a hundredfold.
Tractates 1.7.5Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno expounds 'if I did not think humbly' with the parable of the Pharisee and the publican.
Tractates 1.10.3Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno rebukes Christian women who condemn idols yet come to church loaded with gold, whose coins bear the images of kings.
Tractates 2.17.1Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno begins a sermon on Psalm 130, teaching that the cry 'out of the depths' is the heart's cry in affliction, as with Peter on the sea and Paul in his sufferings.
Hexaemeron 4.7Basil of Caesarea · ca. 370 · The sea is good because it feeds springs and rain, receives the rivers, and links lands and peoples; the praying church is more beautiful still.
Hexaemeron 8.5Basil of Caesarea · ca. 370 · Cranes keep watch in turns, storks care for their aged, the swallow builds with ingenuity, and the halcyon calms the sea: lessons in hospitality, filial love, hope, and prayer.
Homilies 4.1Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Basil opens his homily on 1 Thess 5:16-18 by stating the objection that unceasing joy, prayer and thanksgiving are impossible.
Homilies 5.2Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Julitta went joyfully to the fire, encouraging women to equal men in piety; Basil then explains unceasing prayer as a life directed to God and thanksgiving even in bereavement.
Homilies 5.9Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Christians should weep only for sin, as Paul and Jeremiah did, and not use grief as an excuse for drunkenness; Basil closes his exposition of 1 Thess 5:16-18.
Homilies 8.2Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Drought and famine are God's fatherly chastisement for the hard-heartedness of the rich toward the poor; Basil rebukes the half-hearted prayer of the city and holds up the repentance of Nineveh.
Homilies 14.8Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Men and women danced together drunk, so that girls lost their virginity and men committed adultery by looking; Basil prescribes fasting, psalms, tears and almsgiving, and tells the sober to separate from the unrepentant.
Homilies 19.8Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · The forty are burned and their ashes thrown into the river; their relics, though divided among many places, remain forty and help all who pray with them; the mother of the youngest lifts him onto the cart herself.
Homilies 23.1Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · On the feast of the martyr Mamas, Basil asks the congregation to praise him themselves by recalling the dreams, prayers, healings and other benefits they have received through him.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 2.20Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · No one is sinless (1 John 1:8): man wills and runs but God perfects; the Donatists, claiming perfect holiness while praying "forgive us our debts," are like the proud Pharisee of the parable.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 3.9Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · Only Africa needed the union, because only there had the garment of the church been torn; the mender who pricks some threads is less to blame than the one who tore it, and Catholics and Donatists still share the same sacraments.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 4.2Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · Catholics and Donatists remain brothers, born of one mother church through the same sacraments, and the Lord's Prayer, spoken in the plural, makes each pray for the other.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:5Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Spouses may abstain by agreement for a time of prayer, as Nazirites abstained even from permitted things, but must then come together lest Satan tempt them.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 11:4Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Ambrosiaster explains 'prophesying' as declaring Christ's coming in the creed after prayer.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 14:13Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · One who speaks in tongues should pray for the gift of interpretation.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 14:14Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Praying in an unknown tongue, like Latins singing Greek, leaves the mind without fruit, though the Spirit given in baptism knows the prayer.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 14:15Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Prayer and psalm-singing should engage both the Spirit and the understanding.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 14:16Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The congregation cannot answer 'Amen', confirming the prayer, if it does not understand it.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 14:28Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Without an interpreter, tongues should be used only in silent prayer.
Commentary on 1 Thessalonians 5:14–17Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The strong are to bear with the restless, timid, and weak, repay no evil, and rejoice, pray, and give thanks always.
Commentary on 1 Thessalonians 5:24–25Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · God is faithful to his promises, and Paul asks the prayers of those whose right living makes their prayers effective.
Commentary on 1 Timothy 2:1–4Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The church prays for rulers so that believers may live godly lives in peace; God wills all to be saved, but only those who freely come to him in faith.
Commentary on 1 Timothy 2:8Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Men should pray with a peaceable heart in any fitting place, not only in church.
Commentary on 1 Timothy 5:5Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The church should support a widow only when her own family neglects her; a true widow, left alone, places all her hope in God.
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 1:10–11Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Because the apostles suffer and are delivered for all believers, all should pray in trial and give thanks at deliverance.
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 12:8–9Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul's prayer for relief was refused for his good, since Christ's grace and power are perfected in his weakness.
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 13:7Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul prays that the Corinthians do good, even if his authority then has no occasion to be shown.
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 13:9Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul is glad to be 'weak' in not using his power, and prays for the Corinthians' perfection.
Commentary on 2 Thessalonians 1:11–12Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul prays that God will help the Thessalonians complete their work of faith, to Christ’s glory and their teacher’s.
Commentary on 2 Thessalonians 3:2Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul asks prayer that the word may spread and that he may be delivered from unbelieving troublemakers.
Commentary on Colossians 1:4–6Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul thanks God for the Colossians' faith and love, which rest on the hope laid up in heaven.
Commentary on Colossians 1:7–8Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The Colossians' faith bears fruit and draws others; Paul prays that they may know God's will so their devotion may be wise and fruitful.
Commentary on Colossians 3:16Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Believers should sing Christ's praise in psalms and hymns from the heart, for God, not for human favour.
Commentary on Colossians 4:2–4Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul urges persistent prayer and asks the Colossians to pray for his bold preaching.
Commentary on Colossians 4:12Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul commends Epaphras, their fellow citizen, who prays constantly for the Colossians' perfection.
Commentary on Ephesians 1:15–16Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul thanks God for the Ephesians' faith and love, by which gentiles share Israel's promise.
Commentary on Ephesians 1:17–19Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul prays that the Ephesians may know the hope of their calling; God is Christ's God and Father in a unique sense, as God from God.
Commentary on Ephesians 3:13Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul asks the Ephesians not to be shaken by his sufferings and prays that the Father strengthen them by the Spirit.
Commentary on Ephesians 5:19Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Those who live well are filled with the Spirit and praise God in song from the heart, not the lips alone.
Commentary on Ephesians 5:20–21Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Believers give thanks to the Father through Christ and submit to one another in humility.
Commentary on Ephesians 6:18–20Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Praying in the spirit means praying with a pure conscience; Paul asks prayer for boldness, since God's envoy is in chains though envoys are protected by the law of nations.
Commentary on Philemon 1:4–6Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul thanks God for Philemon’s faith and generosity to the saints and prays that he will give with an eye to the future reward.
Commentary on Philippians 1:5Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul joyfully thanks God for the Philippians' steadfast fellowship in the gospel from the start.
Commentary on Philippians 1:9–11Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul prays that the Philippians' love may grow in discernment and righteous works until Christ's day.
Commentary on Philippians 4:5–7Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The Philippians' reasonable conduct should win others; since the Lord is near, they should not be anxious but pray with thanksgiving, guarded by God's peace.
Commentary on Philippians 4:19Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul prays that his God will fulfil the Philippians' desires, to Christ's glory.
Commentary on Romans 1:9Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Ambrosiaster explains that Paul serves God in spirit through the gospel rather than through the ceremonies of the law, and that his prayers for the Romans are meant to awaken their love.
Commentary on Romans 1:22Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Ambrosiaster rejects the excuse that one approaches God through created powers as one approaches a king through his counts: God needs no intermediary, only a devout mind.
Commentary on Romans 8:15Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The law brought the fear of the guilty, but the Spirit of adoption frees us to call God “Abba, Father”, a privilege our lives must honour.
Commentary on Romans 8:16Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The Spirit who remains in those who live well testifies that they rightly call God Father.
Commentary on Romans 8:23Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Believers, tossed in the world as on a stormy sea by persecution and strife, groan with creation for the coming of God’s kingdom; creation groans the more, seeing its fruits offered to idols.
Commentary on Romans 8:26Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The Spirit helps our ignorant prayers, preventing what would harm us, as Paul and James and John learned, and intercedes for us in the language of God.
Commentary on Romans 8:27Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · God knows the Spirit’s intercession, for the Spirit is of the same substance as God and asks what pleases God and profits us.
Commentary on Romans 8:28Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · God turns all things to good for those who love him, overlooking their unskilful prayers; the called are those he foreknew as believers.
Commentary on Romans 9:16Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · God’s mercy depends on his judgment, not the asker’s will: David, forgiven, remained humble and patient in trouble, while Saul, refused, turned to idols, which shows that God’s foreknowledge judges justly.
Commentary on Romans 10:12Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · There is no salvation for Jew or Greek without Christ, Lord of all, who is rich toward those who keep calling on him in prayer after believing.
Commentary on Romans 12:12Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · When the faith cannot be spoken openly, believers rejoice in hope, endure tribulation, and persevere in prayer.
Commentary on Romans 15:30–31Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul asks the Romans to pray for his deliverance in Judaea, since the united prayers of many prevail.
Commentary on Romans 15:32Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul asks prayer that his gift be accepted in Jerusalem and that he may come joyfully to Rome.
On the Destruction of Jerusalem 5.16Anonymous · ca. 370 · Josephus recounts how Israel's fathers won by prayer and obedience rather than arms, argues that God has turned from the Jews to the Romans, and pleads with the defenders to surrender.
Question 110, section 9Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The blessed man gives his days to good works and his nights to prayer, meditating on God’s law.
Question 115, section 37Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The mind must rule the body, and God’s help must be sought against the demons who inflame its desires; without them the flesh is easily controlled.
Question 115, section 39Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · God, who set the courses of the heavenly bodies, can command them otherwise, sending or withholding rain in answer to prayer or sin, as in the days of Elijah and Elisha.
Question 115, section 40Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · As the oppressed appeal to the emperor over governors, so people should appeal to God, who rules over the stars.
Question 115, section 46Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · God changes his decrees at prayer, as when the sun stood still for Joshua and went back for Hezekiah, whose life was lengthened against the astrologers’ claims.
Question 120, section 2Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Fasting is a medicine for the soul, effective when joined with prayer and works of mercy.
Question 120, section 5Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Fasting makes prayer acceptable when joined with almsgiving and righteousness, as with Cornelius, whose fasting was commended by his feeding of the poor.
Question 123, section 17Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Adam, made from earth, could not call God Father, which only those who receive the Spirit can do; to think Adam had the Spirit is to undervalue the gift Christians have received.
Question 127, section 35Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Ordained clergy abstain from marital relations because some lawful things are forbidden to certain persons or at certain times, as lay Christians also abstain for prayer on holy days.
Letter 2.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome asks the monks to pray that he may be freed from the world and actually take up the monastic life he desires.
Letter 13.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome laments that their estrangement has made both their offerings and the Lord's Prayer insincere.
Letter 22.7Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome recounts how, even in the harshest desert life, he was tormented by memories of Rome and sexual temptation, and found relief only in prayer and fasting.
Letter 22.17Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome counsels Eustochium to keep ascetic companions, stay at home, fast, pray, and read Scripture, overcoming bodily desire with love for Christ.
Letter 22.18Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome urges Eustochium to watchful prayer and tears, and argues that the virgin is free from the curse on woman and from marriage, which ends in death.
Letter 22.22Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome refers Eustochium to his own work against Helvidius and to earlier writers on virginity, and argues that marital relations hinder continual prayer.
Letter 22.25Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Using the Song of Songs, Jerome urges Eustochium to meet Christ in the privacy of her room and not to seek him in public, where she will be exposed to danger.
Letter 22.26Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome urges Eustochium to stay within in prayer, opening her heart to Christ and closing it to the devil.
Letter 22.35Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome describes the ordered common life of Egyptian cenobitic monks: obedience, work, silence, prayer, Scripture, and care for the sick.
Letter 22.37Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome sets out the hours of prayer, the sign of the cross, and warnings against judging others and against fasting with an angry heart.
Letter 23.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome praises Lea, a noble widow who became head of a community of virgins and lived in humility and prayer.
Letter 24.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome describes Asella's secluded life of work, prayer, and fasting, which she kept in health to the age of fifty.
Letter 24.5Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome describes Asella's balanced, unostentatious holiness, which is respected by all in luxurious Rome.
Letter 38.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome describes Blesilla's changed life of prayer, psalmody, simple dress, and almsgiving.
Letter 39.1Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome laments the death of the young widow Blesilla, praising her faith, learning, humility, and last words.
Letter 39.5Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome reminds Paula of her ascetic vows and holds up Naomi, Job, and Melania as examples of patience in bereavement.
Letter 43.1Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome recalls how Origen and his patron Ambrose never ate or slept without reading Scripture and prayer.
Letter 43.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome urges Marcella to leave Rome for a simple country life of prayer and reading.
Letter 46.13Jerome · ca. 370–419 · They picture the joy of Marcella's arrival and the holy places they will visit together in Palestine.
Letter 49.15Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome defends his view, drawn from Paul and Peter, that married intercourse is a hindrance to prayer and to receiving the body of Christ, and urges couples to abstain before communion.
Letter 51.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Epiphanius denies praying publicly for John's orthodoxy and urges him to abandon Origen, whom he calls the father of Arius.
Letter 52.13Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome warns against seeking popular praise and commends the four cardinal virtues as the true adornment of a cleric.
Letter 58.6Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome gives Paulinus and his wife practical rules of diet, reading, prayer, almsgiving, and caution with money.
Letter 60.17Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome attributes the barbarian victories to the sins of the Romans and calls for repentance, citing biblical deliverances.
Letter 65.19Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome interprets 'all the glory of the king's daughter is within' of the inner beauty of the church and of the hidden meanings of Scripture.
Letter 96.14Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Theophilus condemns Origen's teaching that prayer should be addressed to the Father alone, citing Scripture for prayer to Christ.
Letter 106.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · On Ps 5:8 Jerome shows from the Hebrew that 'direct your way in my sight' is correct, explaining it by analogy with 'hallowed be your name' in the Lord's Prayer.
Letter 107.9Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome prescribes daily Scripture study, Greek then Latin, the parents' example, constant supervision, a grave older companion, and a round of prayer at the set hours.
Letter 108.20Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome describes the rule of Paula's convent at Bethlehem: three companies of women united in prayer at the set hours, common dress and property, strict separation from men, graded correction, and tender care of the sick.
Letter 109.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome defends his zeal by biblical examples, and defends the night vigils from Christ's command to watch and the practice of the prophets and apostles.
Letter 125.11Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome tells Rusticus not to live with his mother, to read and pray constantly, and to keep busy with manual work—gardening, basket-weaving, bee-keeping, copying books—as the Egyptian monasteries require.
Letter 130.15Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome sets out a daily rule for Demetrias: fixed hours of prayer, memorizing and reading Scripture, and working wool with her own hands.
Letter 133.5Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome argues that the Pelagian view of grace as merely the gift of free will makes prayer and fasting pointless, quoting one of Pelagius's disciples.
Letter 133.6Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome insists that free will itself depends on God's continual help, so Christians must always pray and give thanks, and no one is perfect in this life.
Letter 140.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome explains the word 'prayer', the fivefold division of the Psalter, and why a psalm naming Samuel can still be by Moses.
Letter 148.24Jerome · ca. 370–419 · The writer advises Celantia to set aside a quiet place in her house for reading and prayer.
On the Holy Spirit 1.3Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Basil explains that the treatise began when some objected to his using two forms of the doxology.
On the Holy Spirit 7.16Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · The church uses both "with" and "through": "with" to glorify the Son, "through" to give thanks for his gifts, and "with" is the old usage of the fathers.
On the Holy Spirit 25.58Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Scripture often uses "in" where it means "with," and the opponents' own doxology ("through the Son in the Spirit") is not found in Scripture as a single formula.
On the Holy Spirit 25.60Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · "With" expresses conjunction and "in" the relation to a place or sphere; Basil offers peace on "and" as in the baptismal formula, but the opponents insist on "in the Spirit" as lowering him.
On the Holy Spirit 26.62Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · The Spirit is called the "place" of the saints—the place of true worship and of the sacrifice of praise—and the saint in turn is a place for the Spirit.
On the Holy Spirit 26.63Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · In relation to the Father and the Son the Spirit is better said to be "with" them, since he coexists with them eternally; "in" fits his grace in us, and the doxology "in the Spirit" confesses our weakness.
On the Holy Spirit 26.64Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Worship "in the Spirit" also means worship in his light: as the Father is seen in the Son, the Son is seen in the Spirit, so the Spirit is inseparable from them in worship.
On the Holy Spirit 27.65Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Answering the charge that "with the Spirit" is a novelty, Basil turns to the origin, force, and scriptural basis of "with".
On the Holy Spirit 27.66Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Much that the church holds comes from unwritten apostolic tradition—the sign of the cross, facing east, the words of the epiclesis, the blessings and threefold immersion of baptism, standing to pray on Sunday and at Pentecost—kept in silence to guard the mysteries.
On the Holy Spirit 27.68Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · "In" expresses the Spirit's grace toward us and "with" his fellowship with God; as we are baptized, so we believe, and as we believe, so we glorify.
On the Holy Spirit 29.71Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Unwritten apostolic traditions are to be kept, and the doxology "with the Spirit" is one of them, attested by many ancient witnesses; Basil received it from the man who baptized him.
On the Holy Spirit 29.73Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Origen, Julius Africanus, the ancient lamp-lighting hymn, and the martyr Athenogenes also glorify the Spirit with the Father and the Son.
On the Holy Spirit 29.74Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Gregory the Wonderworker, whose tradition his churches kept unchanged, handed down the disputed doxology; Firmilian, Meletius, the East, Mesopotamia, Cappadocia, and the West use it too.
Ancoratus 16.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Prayer to Father and Son brings the Spirit, who shows the Son is not ignorant.
Ancoratus 23.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · They offered only praise, already anticipating the new covenant.
Ancoratus 23.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · In humility they chose to offer praise.
Ancoratus 23.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · They summon all creation to join their praise.
Ancoratus 25.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The youths' blessings mention the throne and the Cherubim.
Ancoratus 37.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · “Strengthening” means ascribing strength in praise.
Ancoratus 68.14Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Spirit and Christ both intercede.
Ancoratus 73.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · All creation cries “holy” to the Trinity; a doxology.
Ancoratus 101.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · A prayer for those who reject the resurrection.
Ancoratus 119.13Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · He asks their prayers.
Ancoratus 119.14Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Request for prayer and doxology.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 16.1.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Some slept on narrow planks to stay awake for prayer.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 19.3.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Elxai required prayer facing Jerusalem, not the east.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 19.4.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Elxai's secret prayer formula is given.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 26.5.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They pray naked with defiled hands.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 28.8.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Epiphanius gives thanks and prays before moving on.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 29.9.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Jews curse the Nazoraeans in their daily prayers.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 29.9.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Epiphanius closes his treatment of the Nazoraeans.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.12.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · His prayer over the water.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.34.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Epiphanius moves on with a prayer.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 32.4.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Isidore's Ethics advises marriage when prayer turns into a struggle against desire.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 33.5.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christians offer spiritual sacrifices of praise, thanksgiving and generosity.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 35.3.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Epiphanius prays for help with the next heresies.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 36.6.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · A Trinitarian doxology.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 37.8.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Leave malice behind when coming to church and the sacraments.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 37.9.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Epiphanius prays to pass the 'sea monsters' of heresy unharmed.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 38.8.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Having crushed the 'beetle', Epiphanius prays for help.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 47.3.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Epiphanius prays for guidance before the next sect.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.14.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The name Tascodrugites comes from a gesture used in prayer.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 52.3.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Epiphanius prays before continuing.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 55.8.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The sect offers through Melchizedek as a heavenly mediator.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.4.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · If laity abstain for prayer, how much more priests.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.13.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · A prayer for help to speak the truth.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 60.2.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · A prayer for accurate knowledge.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.7.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Origen asks for prayer; he calls the Savior a “generated God.”
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.48.11Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Methodius prays to pass unharmed through the fire of the last day.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.57.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · David prayed to be cleansed of hidden and alien thoughts.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.62.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul, like David, prays for deliverance from inner sin.
On Cain and Abel 1.34Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · Humility commends prayer: the tax collector, not the boastful Pharisee, was justified; the proud like Pharaoh and the Assyrian were cast down, while the grateful, like Jacob and the Samaritan leper, give God the credit.
On Cain and Abel 1.35Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · Prayer and the mysteries should be kept hidden, like Abraham's and Israel's cakes baked under the ashes and the hidden leaven; Christ taught us to pray in the inner room of the heart.
On Cain and Abel 1.36Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · The door to be shut in prayer is the mouth: Paul rightly asked for a door of the word to be opened to preach, but we should guard our lips, since much speaking brings sin.
On Cain and Abel 1.37Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · Prayer should be humble and discreet, guarding the mysteries of the Creed and the Lord's Prayer; God hears thoughts, not shouts, and the mysteries should be shared only when mature.
On Cain and Abel 1.38Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · Christ teaches us to pray often but not wearisomely, to forgive as we ask forgiveness, and to pray everywhere in the inner room of the heart.
On Cain and Abel 1.39Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · We should pray for the whole people, the body of the church, so that as each prays for all, all pray for each.
On Cain and Abel 2.21Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · The third quality, "divided", means that prayer and offering should be ordered by the four virtues: prudence, temperance (even between spouses), fortitude and justice; Cain's offering lacked this division.
On Cain and Abel 2.22Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · The fourth quality, "continual", means constant prayer and meditation on Scripture, which, like exercise, strengthens the soul; such prayer is the "fat" offering.
Apostolic Canon 9Anonymous · ca. 380 · The faithful who leave before the prayer and communion are excommunicated.
Apostolic Canon 10Anonymous · ca. 380 · Praying with the excommunicated brings excommunication.
Apostolic Canon 45Anonymous · ca. 380 · Clergy who pray with heretics are excommunicated; if they let them minister, deposed.
Apostolic Canon 65Anonymous · ca. 380 · Praying in a synagogue or heretical assembly is forbidden.
Apostolic Constitutions 1.3.7Anonymous · ca. 380 · One must pray to be kept from harm and seek to please God, not people.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.21.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · Christ, the way of peace, taught that those who forgive will be forgiven.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.21.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · Those who refuse to forgive condemn themselves by their own prayer.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.22.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · The judgment on Manasseh, his captivity in Babylon, and his prayer of repentance (the Prayer of Manasseh).
Apostolic Constitutions 2.26.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The old sacrifices and tithes are now the church’s prayers, thanksgivings and offerings presented through the bishops.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.36.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · Believers must bring offerings and attend church morning and evening.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.39.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · Penitents, like catechumens, may hear the readings but must leave before the prayers until they show the fruit of repentance.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.41.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · The penitent who shows fruit of repentance is received back to the prayers, like the prodigal son.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.41.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · David’s prayer after his sin shows that God restores penitents to their former dignity.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.53.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · Prayer and thanksgiving are not accepted while anger remains.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.53.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · Enmity must be ended so that prayer may be pure and heard.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.53.8Anonymous · ca. 380 · A grudge-bearer who will not forgive hinders his own prayer.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.53.9Anonymous · ca. 380 · Forgiveness should go beyond the number given, so that one becomes a child of God.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.54.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Before the prayers the deacon calls on all to be reconciled.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.54.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · As visitors greet a house with peace, the bishop must first pray peace on the people.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.56.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · The Lord’s Prayer asks that all on earth glorify God with one accord as the angels do.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.57.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · Psalms are sung between the readings, with the people responding.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.57.14Anonymous · ca. 380 · After the dismissal of catechumens and penitents come the prayers facing east, the kiss of peace, the intercessions, the blessing and the Eucharist, received in order.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.59.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · The bishop must urge the people to attend church morning and evening every day.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.59.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · Believers must gather daily for morning and evening prayer, with Psalm 63 and Psalm 141.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.59.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · Attendance is especially required on the sabbath and on Sunday, the day of the resurrection.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.59.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · Sunday is the day of prayers, readings, the Gospel and the Eucharist, which no one should miss.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.60.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Those who care for bodily things but neglect the church are worse than the Gentiles.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.60.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · Christians who neglect church have no excuse when pagans and Jews are so diligent.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.60.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · The prophets reproach God’s people for being less faithful than the nations to their gods.
Apostolic Constitutions 3.1.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · Such a widow is like Anna the prophetess and will be honoured on earth and in heaven.
Apostolic Constitutions 3.4.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · Recipients should know the giver’s name to pray for him.
Apostolic Constitutions 3.5.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The widow’s task is prayer for donors and the church.
Apostolic Constitutions 3.7.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · A widow devoted to money serves mammon and cannot pray rightly.
Apostolic Constitutions 3.7.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · A distracted widow’s prayers are not heard.
Apostolic Constitutions 3.7.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · The true widow, like Judith, prays without ceasing for the church and is heard by God.
Apostolic Constitutions 3.7.7Anonymous · ca. 380 · The widow should pray, fast and work like the widow with two coins; widows must obey the clergy and not accept gifts from robbers, prostitutes or the excommunicated.
Apostolic Constitutions 3.13.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · The model prayer of a widow giving thanks for gifts to her fellow widow, the donor and the bishop.
Apostolic Constitutions 3.13.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The widow who receives should pray with her benefactor.
Apostolic Constitutions 3.14.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Donors should give secretly, and the widow should pray for them.
Apostolic Constitutions 3.18.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · The newly baptized must renounce Satan and live as a son of God, praying the Lord’s Prayer.
Apostolic Constitutions 3.18.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The Lord’s Prayer with its doxology.
Apostolic Constitutions 4.3.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · Those who receive out of real need are honoured as God’s altar and repay donors by prayer.
Apostolic Constitutions 4.5.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Widows and orphans should receive gifts with reverence and thank God.
Apostolic Constitutions 4.5.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · Those who receive should praise God for his providence.
Apostolic Constitutions 4.6.8Anonymous · ca. 380 · Prayers of widows fed by the ungodly for their benefactors are not heard.
Apostolic Constitutions 4.6.9Anonymous · ca. 380 · The prayers of unrepentant sinners provoke God.
Apostolic Constitutions 5.13.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · Holy Week follows, kept by all with fasting and prayer for the perishing.
Apostolic Constitutions 5.19.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · The Easter vigil is kept with readings, baptism, and prayer for the conversion of Israel.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.9.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · As Simon flew with the demons' help, Peter prayed that he be brought down but not killed.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.27.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Those who abstain from prayer and the Eucharist after bodily discharges show that they lack the Spirit.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.27.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · A menstruating woman keeps the Spirit and should pray and receive the Eucharist.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.27.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · A woman who stops praying during her period invites the unclean spirit.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.27.7Anonymous · ca. 380 · Women should pray and meditate on God's law without ritual purity observances.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.29.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · Married couples may pray after intercourse without washing, but no washing cleanses adultery or prostitution.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.11.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Prayer must be without doubting.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.17.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Do not pray while holding bitterness.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.24.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · The Lord's Prayer is to be prayed as Christ taught.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.24.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The Lord's Prayer is said three times a day by those worthy to call God Father.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.28.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · True teachers are to be supported; false teachers helped in need but not heeded or prayed with.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.31.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · Stay sober and faithful to the end.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.33.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · A series of prayers is introduced.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.33.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · God, the God of the fathers, who knows every heart, receives the prayers of all the world.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.33.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · This age is a contest of righteousness in which only a faithful conscience endures.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.33.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · God guided Abraham from the beginning.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.33.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · God guided Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and made his covenant with them.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.33.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · God revealed his name to Moses at the bush.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.33.7Anonymous · ca. 380 · The prayer ends blessing God, defender of Abraham's race.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.34.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · God is blessed for creating all things through Christ.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.34.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · God's design made the heavens, sun, moon, day and night, and gathered the waters.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.34.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · God restrains the sea and made it a path for creatures and ships.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.34.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · The earth bloomed and the luminaries keep their ordered courses.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.34.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · God made the animals and provides for each kind.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.34.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · Man, made in God's image with body, soul and mind, crowns creation.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.34.7Anonymous · ca. 380 · No one can worthily describe God's works in the weather.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.34.8Anonymous · ca. 380 · God punished man's disobedience with death but promised rebirth through Christ.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.35.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · God is great and patient, calling sinners to repentance.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.35.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · Heaven, earth and sea proclaim God's might.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.35.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · All the orders of angels praise God with the threefold Holy.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.35.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · The church on earth joins the heavenly praise.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.35.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · All creation testifies to its Maker.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.35.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · Every person owes God a hymn through Christ.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.35.7Anonymous · ca. 380 · God's eternal might delivers his people.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.35.8Anonymous · ca. 380 · God is everywhere and unbounded, the only God.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.35.9Anonymous · ca. 380 · God alone is holy, and his attributes are without limit; he is the Father of Christ, through whom he created all things.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.36.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · God appointed the Sabbath and the feasts as memorials of creation and of Wisdom.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.36.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The feasts recall Christ's birth, baptism, passion and resurrection; Sunday celebrates his victory over death.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.36.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · God brought Israel out of Egypt and cared for it in the wilderness.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.36.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · The Sabbath and the sabbatical cycles were given for piety, not idleness.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.36.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · The Sabbath is the rest and completion of creation and a day of grateful praise.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.36.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · Sunday surpasses all feasts, for it shows forth Christ and calls for thanksgiving.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.36.7Anonymous · ca. 380 · The grace of the Lord's day surpasses every gift.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.37.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · God, who fulfilled his promises in Christ, is asked to receive the prayers of the Gentile church.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.37.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · God received the sacrifices and prayers of the righteous from Abel to Samuel.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.37.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · The list continues from David to Ezra.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.37.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · The list ends with Daniel, Jonah, the three youths, Hannah, Nehemiah, the Maccabees and Jael.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.37.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · God is asked to receive the church's prayers through Christ in the Spirit.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.38.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Thanks are given for God's unfailing mercies.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.38.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · God helped his people in every age.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.38.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · God helps the church now through Christ the high priest.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.38.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · God is thanked for the gifts of speech and the senses.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.38.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · God forms man in the womb, gives him an immortal soul, and promises resurrection.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.38.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · No life suffices to thank God worthily.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.38.7Anonymous · ca. 380 · God freed us from error through Christ and gave the Spirit.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.38.8Anonymous · ca. 380 · The prayer ends with a doxology.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.38.9Anonymous · ca. 380 · The prayers close with a blessing.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.45.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · The newly baptized stands to pray the Lord's Prayer as one risen with Christ.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.45.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · Prayer is made toward the east, as at the dedication of Solomon's temple.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.45.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · The newly baptized asks for purity and the Spirit's visitation.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.47.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · The morning hymn begins with the angels' song.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.47.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The hymn praises the unbegotten Father through the high priest.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.47.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · The morning hymn ends with praise through Christ, the Lamb of God.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.48.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · The evening hymn begins with Psalm 113.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.48.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The Father is praised for his glory.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.48.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · Praise is offered to the Father through the Son in the Spirit.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.48.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · The hymn ends with the Song of Simeon.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.49.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · A grace at meals closes book 7.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.5.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · The prayer of episcopal ordination begins by praising the unbegotten God.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.5.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · God is praised as Father of the only-begotten Son and Maker of all through him.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.6.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · The catechumens are bidden to pray.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.6.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · The faithful pray for the catechumens, led by the deacon.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.6.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · The deacon leads the prayer for the catechumens.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.6.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · The prayer asks that the catechumens be cleansed and brought to baptism.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.6.7Anonymous · ca. 380 · Prayer that the catechumens may be forgiven and admitted to the mysteries.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.6.8Anonymous · ca. 380 · The catechumens rise, pray for peace, and bow for the blessing.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.6.9Anonymous · ca. 380 · The people answer “Lord, have mercy”; the bishop blesses the catechumens, and they are dismissed.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.7.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The deacon leads prayer for those troubled by unclean spirits.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.7.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · The possessed bow for the blessing.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.7.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · The prayer recalls Christ's victory over the devil.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.7.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · Christ's power is praised.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.7.7Anonymous · ca. 380 · The Son is praised in the words of the Psalms and Prophets.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.7.8Anonymous · ca. 380 · The Son is asked to rebuke the evil spirits.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.8.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The faithful pray for the candidates for baptism.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.8.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · Prayer for the candidates continues.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.8.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · The bishop asks God to sanctify and prepare those about to be baptized.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.9.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The deacon leads prayer for the penitents.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.9.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · Prayer that the penitents be forgiven and restored.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.9.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · No one is free from sin.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.9.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · Prayer that the penitents may be restored to communion and eternal life.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.9.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · The penitents bow for the blessing.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.9.8Anonymous · ca. 380 · The bishop prays to God, who wills the sinner's repentance.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.9.9Anonymous · ca. 380 · God, who forgave Nineveh and the prodigal son, is asked to receive the penitents.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.9.10Anonymous · ca. 380 · The penitents are blessed and dismissed.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.10.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The faithful kneel for the great intercession.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.10.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · Prayer for the peace of the world and the churches.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.10.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · Prayer for the catholic church throughout the world.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.10.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · Prayer for the local congregation.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.10.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · Prayer for all orthodox bishops.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.10.7Anonymous · ca. 380 · Prayer for the bishops of Jerusalem, Rome, Antioch and Alexandria, and for the presbyters.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.10.9Anonymous · ca. 380 · Prayer for deacons, lower clergy, virgins, widows, orphans and married people.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.10.11Anonymous · ca. 380 · Prayer for eunuchs and the continent.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.10.12Anonymous · ca. 380 · Prayer for those who give alms and offerings, and for the newly baptized.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.10.14Anonymous · ca. 380 · The intercession continues for the sick, travelers, prisoners, slaves, enemies, the lapsed, children and one another.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.11.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · The bishop's prayer over the faithful is introduced.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.11.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The bishop addresses God, who revealed his name through Christ.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.11.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · God is asked to redeem his flock and grant it fear and love of him.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.11.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · God is asked to keep his people holy and complete.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.11.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · God is asked to protect the people he redeemed through Christ's blood.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.11.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · The bishop asks that the people be sanctified, protected and brought to eternal life.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.12.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · The anaphora praises God for creation and the history of salvation, joins the angels' Holy, recalls Christ's incarnation and passion, offers the bread and cup, calls down the Holy Spirit, and intercedes for the whole church and world.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.13.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · Prayer that God receive the offered gift on his heavenly altar.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.13.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · Prayer for the church and its clergy.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.13.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · Prayer for rulers, for the sake of peace.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.13.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · The martyrs and the faithful departed are remembered.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.13.7Anonymous · ca. 380 · Prayer for good weather and harvests.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.13.8Anonymous · ca. 380 · Prayer for the newly baptized and for one another.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.13.9Anonymous · ca. 380 · After the bishop's prayer and “Holy things for the holy,” all receive communion in order, the bishop giving the body and the deacon the cup.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.14.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The faithful give thanks for communion and pray that it bring salvation.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.14.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · The faithful commend themselves to God.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.15.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The bishop thanks God for the gift of the holy mysteries.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.15.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · The bishop asks God to unite and confirm the communicants.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.15.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · Prayer for priests, rulers, harvests and the conversion of the erring.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.15.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · Prayer for every order of the faithful and for the kingdom.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.15.7Anonymous · ca. 380 · The bishop's final blessing praises God's transcendence and asks protection for the people.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.16.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · The ordination prayer asks God to increase the church and its leaders.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.18.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · The ordination prayer for a deacon begins.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.20.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · God, who filled prophetesses with the Spirit and had women keep the sanctuary gates, is invoked for the deaconess.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.29.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · The prayer asks God to give the water and oil power to heal and drive out demons.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.32.9Anonymous · ca. 380 · Actors, gladiators, soldiers, magicians, concubines and others are admitted only on giving up their practices; catechumens are instructed for three years.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.34.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · The hours of daily prayer are set.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.34.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · Morning prayer gives thanks for the light.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.34.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · The third hour recalls Christ's sentence.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.34.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · The sixth hour recalls the crucifixion.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.34.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · The ninth hour recalls the trembling of creation at the crucifixion.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.34.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · Evening prayer gives thanks for rest.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.34.7Anonymous · ca. 380 · Cockcrow prayer welcomes the day.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.34.9Anonymous · ca. 380 · Places held by the ungodly are to be avoided; prayer with catechumens or heretics is forbidden.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.35.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · James gives the order of evening and morning prayer.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.35.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · At evening the church gathers; the lamp-lighting psalm is followed by prayers for the catechumens and others.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.36.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · The deacon leads the evening prayer of the faithful.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.36.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · Petition for salvation.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.36.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · The faithful ask for a peaceful evening and night.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.37.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · The bishop's evening prayer is introduced.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.37.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The evening thanksgiving praises God, maker of day and night.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.37.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · The bishop asks for a peaceful night and eternal life.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.37.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · The evening blessing praises God, who made man and appointed rulers and priests.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.37.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · The bishop blesses the people through Christ.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.38.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Morning prayer follows the same pattern.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.38.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The faithful ask for a peaceful day.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.38.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · The bishop's morning prayer is introduced.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.38.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · The morning prayer asks God's mercy on those who worship him alone.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.38.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · God, who gave being and well-being through Christ, is asked for eternal life.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.39.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · The blessing addresses the faithful God, protector of the poor.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.39.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · The bishop blesses the people and asks God to guard them.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.40.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · The thanksgiving over firstfruits is introduced.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.40.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · Thanks are given for the firstfruits.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.40.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · God provides food for every creature and for man.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.40.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · The thanksgiving ends with a doxology.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.41.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Prayers for the departed ask that they rest with the patriarchs, and the bishop blesses the living.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.42.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · The dead are commemorated on the third day.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.42.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · And on the ninth day.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.42.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · And on the fortieth day, as Israel mourned Moses.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.42.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · And on the anniversary.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.44.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Clergy at memorial meals must be sober and orderly.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.48.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · The work ends with a blessing and doxology.
On Virgins 3.4Ambrose · ca. 377 · Marcellina has surpassed Liberius’s precepts in fasting; Ambrose urges her, now older, to moderate her austerities like a good farmer varying his crops, to pray at set times and in bed, and to recite the Creed daily before dawn.
On the Christian Faith 1.20Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose closes the first book with a prayer, like Isaiah’s, that Christ would cleanse his lips and the emperor’s ears, and that the wine of the cross would fill them with faith.
On the Christian Faith 3.17Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose explains that Stephen saw Christ standing, not sitting, because he stood as priest and president of the martyr’s contest, and argues from Stephen’s prayers that the Father and the Son have one power.
Life of Macrina, part 4Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380 · Naucratius dies suddenly while hunting; Macrina's steadfastness keeps their mother from grief, and mother and daughter take up a common life with their former maids, living like the angels.
Life of Macrina, part 7Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380 · On her last day Macrina, freed from fear of death, turns toward the east and prays to Christ, who has destroyed death, crushed the dragon and given the sign of the cross.
Life of Macrina, part 8Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380 · Macrina ends her prayer asking for a shining angel and forgiveness, signs herself with the cross, dies at the lamp-lighting, and the virgins break into lament for their mother and teacher.
Psalm 33Apollinaris of Laodicea · uncertain (fourth to sixth century) · Paraphrases of Psalms 33 and 34 of the Septuagint (Psalms 34 and 35), which run together in the scan: the Lord whose angel guards the righteous, and a plea that God take up shield and sword against false witnesses.
Psalm 68Apollinaris of Laodicea · uncertain (fourth to sixth century) · A paraphrase of Psalm 68 of the Septuagint (Psalm 69): sinking in deep waters, mocked and given cause to fast for reproaches, the sufferer prays for rescue and judgment on his enemies.
10.2Asterius of Amasea · ca. 380-410 · Asterius describes Christians bringing their troubles, sick children, weddings and voyages to the martyrs' shrines as intercessors, contrasts the martyrs' lasting honour with the oblivion of their persecutors, and says every day of the year has its martyrs.
10.3Asterius of Amasea · ca. 380-410 · Asterius explains that the martyrs conquer by suffering and become helpers of mankind, answers pagans and Eunomians that Christians honour but do not worship the martyrs, and turns the charge back on pagans who worship dead men as gods.
10.5Asterius of Amasea · ca. 380-410 · Asterius shows from Jacob's and Joseph's remains, David's prayer, Abraham's intercession for Sodom, and Moses' appeal to the patriarchs that God honours and spares people for the sake of the righteous dead.
10.6Asterius of Amasea · ca. 380-410 · Asterius cites Solomon, spared for David's sake, then denounces the Eunomians for despising the martyrs' shrines despite the demons' confessions and the healings that happen there, and prays for their return to unity.
12.3Asterius of Amasea · ca. 380-410 · Asterius explains why God himself appeared to the first martyr, describes Stephen's stoning and his death on his knees in prayer, and interprets his prayer for his killers as a prayer for their repentance, not for their sin to go unpunished.
15.3Asterius of Amasea · ca. 380-410 · Asterius sets prophecies of Israel's rejection beside promises to the Gentiles, argues that the Jews lost the inheritance while the Church received the kingdom, and begins to expound “Give ear to my words” as a request that God weigh each word of the prayer.
15.4Asterius of Amasea · ca. 380-410 · Asterius explains that the psalmist asks God to weigh each word of his petition, that God hears the unspoken cry of the heart, and that “My King and my God” anticipates Thomas's confession of Christ as God.
15.5Asterius of Amasea · ca. 380-410 · Asterius explains “my King and my God”, and reads “in the morning you will hear my voice” as the Church's inheritance given at Christ's resurrection at dawn, when Mary sought him at the tomb.
16.4Asterius of Amasea · ca. 380-410 · Asterius explains that the prophet's words, cry and voice are his deeds and the silent groaning of his heart, that “Understand” asks God to read the mind behind poor words, and that God is King and God as Creator, Redeemer and giver of grace.
18.1Asterius of Amasea · ca. 380-410 · Asterius explains that the psalmist's words carry weight with God because he first practised them, that his cry is his boldness and good works, and that God distinguishes the cry of the righteous among many as a mother knows her own young.
18.2Asterius of Amasea · ca. 380-410 · Asterius defines petition as need, shows from the Pharisee and the tax collector that good works must be presented with humility, explains “My King and my God”, and reads “in the morning” of Christ's resurrection at dawn.
Practical Chapters to Anatolius, chapter 6Evagrius of Pontus · ca. 380-399 · Remedies for the mind, desire and anger must be used in due time and measure.
Practical Chapters to Anatolius, chapter 14Evagrius of Pontus · ca. 380-399 · Dwelling on anger or lust defiles prayer and opens the way to listlessness.
Practical Chapters to Anatolius, chapter 16Evagrius of Pontus · ca. 380-399 · Driving away a brother in anger brings lasting sadness in prayer.
Practical Chapters to Anatolius, chapter 30Evagrius of Pontus · ca. 380-399 · Rebuke the tempting demons angrily before praying.
Practical Chapters to Anatolius, chapter 31Evagrius of Pontus · ca. 380-399 · Observe the demons' patterns; withdrawal is a practice of death; the body is not to blame; undistracted prayer draws attack on the irascible part.
Practical Chapters to Anatolius, chapter 37Evagrius of Pontus · ca. 380-399 · Signs of dispassion: inner light, calm sleep, undistracted prayer.
Practical Chapters to Anatolius, chapter 40Evagrius of Pontus · ca. 380-399 · The perfect need no self-control; undistracted psalmody is greater than undistracted prayer.
Practical Chapters to Anatolius, chapter 63Evagrius of Pontus · ca. 380-399 · Fasting, prayer and almsgiving heal desire, mind and anger, if not done for show; lingering passionate thoughts keep the mind from God.
Practical Chapters to Anatolius, chapter 67Evagrius of Pontus · ca. 380-399 · When a passion flares suddenly, a worse demon has taken over; flee to Christ with prayer, fasting and vigils.
Practical Chapters to Anatolius, chapter 68Evagrius of Pontus · ca. 380-399 · Guard the heart, for a soul wounded after purification is hard to heal; Christ and the Father raise the dead soul through contemplation and knowledge.
Practical Chapters to Anatolius, chapter 70Evagrius of Pontus · ca. 380-399 · The renewed mind sees its own state in prayer as the sapphire place of God.
Practical Chapters to Anatolius, chapter 71Evagrius of Pontus · ca. 380-399 · Through virtue and contemplation the mind sees the light of God's place in prayer.
On the Eight Thoughts, chapter 3Evagrius of Pontus · ca. 380-399 · Anger and the resentment it breeds.
Practical Discourse, chapter 46Evagrius of Pontus · ca. 380-399 · Blasphemous thoughts aim to stop prayer and should not disturb us.
Practical Discourse, chapter 49Evagrius of Pontus · ca. 380-399 · Unceasing prayer is commanded because it depends on the mind, not the weak body.
Practical Discourse, chapter 54Evagrius of Pontus · ca. 380-399 · Dreams reveal which part of the soul is sick.
Causes of Monastic Matters, chapter 10Evagrius of Pontus · ca. 380-399 · Fast as one is able, relaxing for guests and illness; abstinence is a free choice; pray with fear and watchfulness against distracting demons.
Theological Oration 1 (Or. 27), Against the Eunomians 4Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Gregory does not forbid remembering God constantly, only theological debate that is untimely and without measure.
Theological Oration 1 (Or. 27), Against the Eunomians 7Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Instead of cultivating prayer, fasting, and self-control, the disputers neglect the virtues and reward impiety with licence.
Theological Oration 4 (Or. 30), On the Son 14Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Christ’s intercession is his continuing mediation as man, not a slavish pleading before the Father.
Theological Oration 5 (Or. 31), On the Holy Spirit 12Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Worship in the Spirit is worship of the Spirit, since to worship one of the three is to worship all three; and the Spirit was not made through the Son.
On the Beatitudes 1195Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Gregory urges his hearers to climb the mountain with Christ the healer and to dig together by prayer for the treasure hidden in the first Beatitude, a spiritual wealth that each possesses wholly; he begins by defining blessedness as the sum of all goods.
On the Lord's Prayer 1119Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Opening the first homily on the Lord’s Prayer, Gregory says his hearers must first learn that they ought to pray at all, since everyone, from shopkeeper to buyer, gives the hour of prayer to business.
On the Lord's Prayer 1121Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Craftsmen, teachers, litigants, and judges forget prayer and trust their own skill; hence greed, quarrels, and injustice multiply; if prayer came first and God were remembered, sin would find no entry.
On the Lord's Prayer 1123Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Every undertaking done with prayer is kept from sin, since prayer joins us to God; Gregory praises prayer in a long list of its benefits for every condition of life and recalls Jonah, Hezekiah, the three young men, Amalek, and Sennacherib’s army.
On the Lord's Prayer 1125Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · God’s benefits span past, present, and future, so we can never thank him enough; yet we give him no time, though he made the world for us, formed us in his image, and restores us to paradise, while we stay awake only for gain.
On the Lord's Prayer 1127Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Christ forbids “babbling” in prayer, that is, asking for vain things like a child daydreaming of kingdoms and flying; to ask God for base, passionate things is like asking a generous king to make clay pots.
On the Lord's Prayer 1129Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · To pray for harm to an enemy is to ask God to share our anger and become cruel; such prayers, like prayers for glory or victory, are “babbling”; Gregory turns to the objection that prophets prayed against their enemies.
On the Lord's Prayer 1131Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · The saints who seem to curse their enemies are praying against sin, not people: the Psalmist wants sin to fail, and the enemies he wishes put to shame are the demons and passions that war against the soul.
On the Lord's Prayer 1133Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · The prophets’ curses are aimed at sin, not at people, for God did not make death; if God sometimes grants worldly requests, it is to strengthen weak faith and lead us, like children growing up, to ask for higher things.
On the Lord's Prayer 1135Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Worldly gifts are toys to lead us to ask the Father for greater things; to ask God only for earthly goods is to pray “like the gentiles,” who have no hope beyond this life. Homily 2 begins: Moses could not bring the people near to God at Sinai.
On the Lord's Prayer 1137Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Unlike Moses at Sinai, Christ leads all believers up to heaven itself, makes them sharers in God, shows God’s glory to the pure in heart, and asks for purification not from marriage but from every passion.
On the Lord's Prayer 1139Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · One must first vow and offer something to God before asking; Christ bids us say “Father,” but to call God Father one would need wings to rise above all changing things to the unchanging One, and a soul and conscience like his, for the Good cannot be father of evil.
On the Lord's Prayer 1141Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · To call God “Father” while living in sin is to make him the cause of one’s evils and so to insult him; the sinner’s father is the devil, the father of lies; Christ’s command to say “Father” is a command to live as God’s children.
On the Lord's Prayer 1143Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · God would reject the sinner who calls him Father; “Father in heaven” recalls our lost fatherland, as in the parable of the prodigal son, whose confession, robe, ring, and kiss signify repentance and the restoration of the first state.
On the Lord's Prayer 1145Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Calling on the Father in heaven recalls our heavenly fatherland; the road back is likeness to God, which lies within our choice, for God is not distant in place; whoever is joined to God is already in heaven, but whoever bears the marks of the evil one cannot be God’s son.
On the Lord's Prayer 1147Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Homily 2 ends: the sinner’s prayer calls on the devil, so we must examine our lives before saying “Father,” setting our hearts on heaven, and then God will receive us like the prodigal son. Homily 3 opens with the priest’s preparation for entering the sanctuary.
On the Lord's Prayer 1149Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · As the high priest was purified and vested before entering the sanctuary, so Christ makes all believers priests, clothing them with virtues and bringing them into the sanctuary of the heart to offer themselves as a living sacrifice.
On the Lord's Prayer 1151Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Whoever can rightly call God Father wears the spiritual priestly robe of virtues and enters the heavenly sanctuary; Gregory now turns to the petitions themselves.
On the Lord's Prayer 1153Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · “Hallowed be thy name” asks that God’s name be glorified in our lives rather than blasphemed by the bad conduct of Christians; a pure and virtuous life makes even outsiders glorify God.
On the Lord's Prayer 1155Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · To pray “Hallowed be thy name” is to ask to become virtuous so that God is glorified in us; “Thy kingdom come” cannot ask God to become king, but asks that his free and life-giving rule replace the tyranny of sin, passion, and death in us.
On the Lord's Prayer 1157Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · When God’s kingdom comes, the passions vanish like smoke and melt like wax, as darkness before light; the soul prays that God’s angelic forces may overthrow the enemy, so that grief gives way to life and peace.
On the Lord's Prayer 1161Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Homily 3 ends with a prayer for the Spirit’s cleansing. Homily 4 opens on “Thy will be done” and “our daily bread” with a physician’s account of health as the balance of the elements, to be applied to the soul.
On the Lord's Prayer 1163Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Christ, the true physician, heals our sickness, which came from separation from God’s will, by union with that will; to pray “Thy will be done” is to confess the past and ask that virtue, above all love, drive out the vices; we need God’s help because it is harder to recover than to fall.
On the Lord's Prayer 1165Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Because human nature, weakened by sin, cannot return to the good unaided, we pray “Thy will be done”; “as in heaven, so on earth” refers to the two kinds of rational beings, angels in heaven and humans on earth, perhaps so joined that the human body may share at last in heaven.
On the Lord's Prayer 1167Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · In heaven God’s will is done without hindrance because the angels are free of vice; we pray that our life be cleansed so that his will may be done in us too; and the next petition, for daily bread, shows how embodied people can approach angelic freedom from need by contentment with little.
On the Lord's Prayer 1169Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · “Give us bread” asks for necessities, not for the long list of luxuries for which people mine, trade, and sail; what nature owes the body is only bread, and luxury is the enemy’s weed among the wheat.
On the Lord's Prayer 1175Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · “Today” teaches that life lasts a day and forbids anxiety about tomorrow: God who gives the day gives what it needs, as he feeds ravens and eagles, while the rich fool lost all in one night; we should ask today for bread and seek above all the kingdom.
On the Lord's Prayer 1177Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Homily 4 ends: seek the kingdom first. Homily 5 opens on “Forgive us our debts”: forgiving belongs to God alone, so one who forgives imitates and in a way becomes like God, while one who exacts his debts harshly cuts himself off from God’s mercy.
On the Lord's Prayer 1179Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · The petition gives the one who prays boldness and makes him his own judge: if we forgive, God has already forgiven; daringly, Gregory says the order is reversed, and we may ask God to imitate our forgiveness, in proportion to his greater power.
On the Lord's Prayer 1181Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Gregory lists humanity’s debts to God — desertion from its Maker, slavery to sin, the ruin of the divine image, the prodigal’s squandering — so that no one should pray as though his conscience were clean; he raises the question how the blameless can ask for forgiveness.
On the Lord's Prayer 1183Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Even the saints must pray for forgiveness, as sharers in Adam’s nature and fall; praying toward the east recalls the lost paradise, and like the prodigal we confess our condition, clothed in garments of skin and fig leaves instead of the divine robe.
On the Lord's Prayer 1187Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Sins of thought and will are countless, and no one is pure; so all must ask for forgiveness, but the prayer is useless unless we forgive others, since the creditor who imprisons his debtor and charges interest condemns himself.
On the Lord's Prayer 1191Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · We must be able to say truly that we have forgiven; “temptation” and “the evil one” are names for the same enemy, who rules the world, so to pray against temptation is to ask to be kept apart from the world, as one who fears war or the sea keeps away from them.
On the Lord's Prayer 1193Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Gregory closes the fifth homily and the series with the prayer to be kept from the evils of life and delivered from the evil one, and a Trinitarian doxology.
Homily 50.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · The cross, which brought salvation, is traced in the ship's mast and sail, the plough, the four quarters of heaven, and the posture of prayer with raised hands, as Moses' hands defeated Amalek.
Homily 61.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · The fifty days from Easter to Pentecost are kept as one long Sunday without fasting or kneeling, because Christ was present; after the ascension, when the cloud of the Father's embrace received him, Christians fast with longing.
Homily 72.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · Peter and Paul excel the other apostles, Peter holding the keys of power and Paul the key of knowledge; equal in merit, they died on one day in Rome, the head of the nations, after Peter's prayer brought down Simon the magician from the air.
Homily 87.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · Prayer, fasting and almsgiving are the true defences of a city threatened by barbarians; heretics are like foxes that lie in wait for the Church's chicks.
Homily 88.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · Life is a 'pirates' den' of trials; barbarian raiders can take property but not Christ, so Christians should trust God rather than magic, and should fast, give alms and give thanks.
Homily 89.2Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · Christians should give thanks at meals, begin each day with thanksgiving and the sign of the cross, and end it with psalms, like the birds and the nightingale, not like the owl, figure of heretics and pagans.
Homily 92.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · Prayer, mercy and fasting are the Christian's arms against barbarian enemies, as Elisha's prayer revealed the angelic army at Dothan and blinded the Syrians without bloodshed.
Homily 107.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · David's prayer for 'goodness, discipline and knowledge' (Ps 119:66) teaches the balance of kindness and correction, shown in Peter, Paul and John the Baptist; true knowledge includes faith in the one substance of Father, Son and Spirit.
Sermon 108.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · The Canaanite woman stands for the Gentile Church and her daughter for the sinful soul; her faith, patience and humility in prayer are an example to Christians.
Tractate 4.2Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · The pagans' gods can neither harm nor help; all things happen by God's will or permission, not by fate, as the prophets' and apostles' miracles and the power of prayer show; the Church, unlike the 'grandmother' of pagan error, never believed in fate.
Chapter 14Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas ends by urging the candidates to keep the creed always in their hearts and to answer the devil’s temptations by renewing their baptismal renunciation.
Fragment 4Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · After renouncing the devil, the candidate recites the creed, which he must learn by heart and say daily, together with the Lord’s Prayer and the sign of the cross.
Chapter 1Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas traces sacred song back to Moses’ song at the Red Sea, sung by choirs of men and women, to Deborah, and to Moses’ warning song in Deuteronomy.
Chapter 2Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas names David as the prince of singers, whose lyre calmed Saul because its wood and stretched strings prefigured the cross.
Chapter 3Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas praises the Psalms as a medicine for every age and condition, sweetened by song, and containing all that the prophets and gospels teach.
Chapter 5Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas says the church’s psalms are songs of God that please him, and that the Psalmist calls all creation to praise.
Chapter 6Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas cites the Psalmist’s praise seven times a day and all day long, and says such praise was David’s shield against Goliath and his enemies.
Chapter 7Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas cites New Testament song: Zechariah’s and Elizabeth’s praise, the angels at Christ’s birth, the children’s Hosanna, and the hymn sung by Christ with his disciples.
Chapter 8Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas says that the church’s vigils join the unceasing praise of the angels in Revelation and the songs of Moses, Hannah, Isaiah, Habakkuk, Jonah and the three young men.
Chapter 9Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas compares the vigil’s psalms, prayers and readings to a varied banquet for the soul.
Chapter 11Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas tells his hearers not to pray privately during the readings, citing Mary of Bethany, and to follow the deacon’s calls so that all act together.
Chapter 7Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas concludes that Christ is both impassible as God and passible in the flesh, that the Father and Son share one kingdom, will and grace, and ends his short commentary with a prayer to the Trinity.
Chapter 18Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas sums up the Spirit’s works and concludes that he who is confessed in baptism with the Father and the Son must be worshipped with them.
Chapter 19Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas concludes that the Father, Son and Spirit are adored with one worship, since even the Lord’s footstool is to be adored and angels long to look on the Spirit.
Chapter 20Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas argues from 1 Cor 14:24–25 that even unbelievers fall down before the Spirit speaking in the prophets, so the faithful should adore him willingly.
Chapter 21Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas explains that the Spirit is not adored separately, as pagans worship many gods, but in one worship with the Father and the Son.
Chapter 1Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas opens his sermon on vigils: God gave the night for rest, but as people sacrifice sleep for earthly gain, Christians should gladly keep vigils of prayer, hymns and readings.
Chapter 2Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas answers those who object to vigils: the lazy and sleepy should be ashamed, the old may keep vigil sitting, the sick should pray in bed and not disparage others.
Chapter 3Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas asks his hearers to keep vigil on the nights of Saturday and Sunday as a cleansing for the week, without shame, whether they are holy or sinners.
Chapter 4Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas shows the antiquity of vigils from Isaiah and David’s psalms of prayer by night and at midnight.
Chapter 5Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas cites David’s vow not to sleep until he found a place for the Lord and other psalms of night prayer, urging Christians, God’s temple, to love vigils.
Chapter 6Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas finds vigils in the New Testament: Anna, the shepherds, Christ’s parables and commands to watch, his own nights of prayer, and his words in Gethsemane.
Chapter 7Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas cites the apostles’ vigils: Peter freed from prison while the church prayed, Peter’s call to watch, Paul and Silas singing at midnight, and Paul’s exhortation to watch.
Chapter 8Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas describes the benefits of vigils, which drive out fear and vice, strengthen chastity and wound the devil, and says night prayer is more effective than prayer by day.
Chapter 9Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas warns that vigils must be kept with the heart, without overeating or drinking, and without evil thoughts, unlike the wicked who stay awake to do evil.
Chapter 10Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas closes, promising to speak of the singing of hymns and psalms in his next sermon.
Book of Heresies 129.6Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · David sang psalms to Christ three times daily with the people.
Book of Heresies 149.4Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The apostles fasted and prayed before Pentecost.
Canons on the Letters of Paul 40Priscillian · ca. 380–400 · Christians should persist in psalms, hymns, and prayers for one another, for kings, and for all.
Canons on the Letters of Paul 59Priscillian · ca. 380–400 · Christ is head of the man and the man of the woman; prayer must be without anger; women should be adorned by conduct, not jewellery.
Eleven Tractates 11.142Priscillian · ca. 380–385 · A blessing (benediction) addressed to God the Father: there is one entrance to God, through Christ, by the working of the Spirit.
Eleven Tractates 11.143Priscillian · ca. 380–385 · The prayer confesses one God, invisible in the Father, visible in the Son, the Spirit united in the work of both, present in and through all things.
Eleven Tractates 11.144Priscillian · ca. 380–385 · The prayer praises God as maker of angels, elements, and living things out of nothing.
Eleven Tractates 11.145Priscillian · ca. 380–385 · All creation praises God; humans, God's workmanship, can give him nothing worthy except praise. The text breaks off.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 1.2Egeria · ca. 381-395 · At the first sight of the mountain the pilgrims pray.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 4.3Egeria · ca. 381-395 · They read the Elijah passage and celebrate the Eucharist at Horeb.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 4.4Egeria · ca. 381-395 · They visit the rock where Aaron and the seventy elders stood.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 4.8Egeria · ca. 381-395 · At the bush they pray, read Exodus, stay the night and celebrate the Eucharist next morning.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 10.7Egeria · ca. 381-395 · Egeria describes the pilgrims' custom of prayer, reading and psalm at each site.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 11.1Egeria · ca. 381-395 · The monks welcome them and give them blessings.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 11.3Egeria · ca. 381-395 · After the customary prayer and reading, monks go with them up Nebo.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 12.3Egeria · ca. 381-395 · The guides invite them to view the biblical places from the summit.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 14.1Egeria · ca. 381-395 · At Melchizedek's church they keep the customary prayer, reading and psalm.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 15.4Egeria · ca. 381-395 · They pray and read at the spring.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 19.2Egeria · ca. 381-395 · At Edessa they pray at Thomas's shrine and read some of his writings.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 19.9Egeria · ca. 381-395 · Abgar prayed with the letter and darkness confounded the Persians.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 19.16Egeria · ca. 381-395 · At the gate the bishop reads the letters and prays.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 20.3Egeria · ca. 381-395 · They pray at the church on the site of Abraham's house.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 21.1Egeria · ca. 381-395 · At Jacob's well, with its church, they pray and read Genesis.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 23.5Egeria · ca. 381-395 · At the shrine she reads the Acts of Thecla.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 24.1Egeria · ca. 381-395 · The daily night office begins before cockcrow at the Anastasis.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 24.2Egeria · ca. 381-395 · At dawn the bishop prays, blesses catechumens and faithful, and dismisses them.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 24.3Egeria · ca. 381-395 · The same is done at the sixth and ninth hours.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 24.4Egeria · ca. 381-395 · At the tenth hour comes the lamp-lighting office.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 24.5Egeria · ca. 381-395 · A deacon names individuals and boys answer “Kyrie eleison”.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 24.6Egeria · ca. 381-395 · The bishop blesses catechumens and faithful separately.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 24.7Egeria · ca. 381-395 · The evening office continues with processions to the Cross.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 24.8Egeria · ca. 381-395 · On Sunday the people gather before cockcrow for vigil.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 24.9Egeria · ca. 381-395 · At cockcrow the Anastasis is opened and three psalms are said.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 24.11Egeria · ca. 381-395 · They process to the Cross for the dismissal.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 24.12Egeria · ca. 381-395 · The monks continue psalmody until dawn.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 25.3Egeria · ca. 381-395 · The bishop gives thanks and blesses the faithful in the Anastasis.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 25.5Egeria · ca. 381-395 · The psalms and antiphons always suit the occasion.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 25.7Egeria · ca. 381-395 · At dawn they enter the Anastasis, then rest.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 27.4Egeria · ca. 381-395 · On weekdays in Lent a service at the third hour is added.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 31.1Egeria · ca. 381-395 · At the ninth hour they go up to the Imbomon, the place of the ascension.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 31.4Egeria · ca. 381-395 · The procession reaches the Anastasis late for the lamp-lighting.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 32.1Egeria · ca. 381-395 · On Monday of Holy Week the people gather at the Martyrium from the ninth hour.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 32.2Egeria · ca. 381-395 · The day ends with blessings at the Anastasis.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 35.3Egeria · ca. 381-395 · At the Eleona the Last Supper discourse is read.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 35.4Egeria · ca. 381-395 · At midnight they go up to the Imbomon.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 36.1Egeria · ca. 381-395 · At cockcrow they pray at the place of the agony.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 37.6Egeria · ca. 381-395 · The readings show prophecy fulfilled in the passion.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 37.9Egeria · ca. 381-395 · Many keep vigil at the tomb through the night.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 39.3Egeria · ca. 381-395 · Each afternoon the newly baptized go up to the Eleona and Imbomon.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 40.1Egeria · ca. 381-395 · On the octave they go to the Eleona and Imbomon, then the Anastasis.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 43.5Egeria · ca. 381-395 · At the Imbomon the accounts of the ascension are read.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 43.6Egeria · ca. 381-395 · They hold the lamp-lighting at the Eleona and descend to the Martyrium.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 43.7Egeria · ca. 381-395 · By candlelight they return to the Martyrium and then the Anastasis.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 43.8Egeria · ca. 381-395 · From the Anastasis and Cross they go again to Sion.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 44.2Egeria · ca. 381-395 · On Sundays the resurrection gospel is read at cockcrow.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 44.3Egeria · ca. 381-395 · The daily pattern continues through the year.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 47.5Egeria · ca. 381-395 · Everything said suits the day and the place.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 48.2Egeria · ca. 381-395 · The feast coincides with Solomon's dedication of the temple.
On the Complaints of Job and David 1.3Ambrose · ca. 383-390 · In Psalm 42 David, like Job before him, remonstrates with God over human frailty; both pleas will be examined.
On the Complaints of Job and David 1.27Ambrose · ca. 383-390 · Job foresees his resurrection at Christ’s passion and prays that the earth not cover his blood, so his prayer may rise to God.
On the Complaints of Job and David 4.8Ambrose · ca. 383-390 · David pours out his soul in longing for the heavenly court, and poured-out prayer covers sins.
On the Complaints of Job and David 4.19Ambrose · ca. 383-390 · Overwhelmed by the world’s waves, David turned to prayer, knowing God’s mercy is shown both in the law and in the night of temptation.
Against Helvidius 22Jerome · ca. 383 · Jerome contrasts the cares of married life with the virgin's freedom for God, while saying he does not disparage marriage or the Old Testament saints.
Second Apology of David 35Ambrose · ca. 384-397 · To open the mysteries Ambrose prays with David for a clean heart and asks Christ, the door, to open to him.
Second Apology of David 36Ambrose · ca. 384-397 · Ambrose prays to drink from Christ’s spring, or at least from his deep well, as the Samaritan woman did.
Second Apology of David 74Ambrose · ca. 384-397 · The Lord’s Prayer shows that the Father forgives, and the Son’s teaching it shows their one power.
Altercatio, chapter 4, speech 2Evagrius of Gaul · ca. 400 · Theophilus blesses and anoints Simon, who gives thanks to Jesus in a closing prayer.
Catechetical Oration 34Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–390 · Christ, shown to be God by his miracles, keeps his promise to be present when invoked, so the divine is surely present in baptism, and the prayer that precedes it confirms this.
On the Life of Moses 361Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–395 · God hears Moses’ silent prayer; the cloud that guides Israel is the grace of the Holy Spirit; the Egyptian army drowned in the sea is the array of the passions, its three-man chariot the three parts of the soul.
Letter 10, canons of the Roman synod to the bishops of Gaul, chapter 1Siricius, bishop of Rome · 385 · Opening of the Roman synod's replies to the bishops of Gaul: Christ commands us to ask, seek and knock for the truth, so the writer gladly answers their questions.
On Naboth 67Ambrose · ca. 386-390 · The rich should pray and render to God, through the poor, the gifts he gave them; God seeks not sacrifices but faith, praise, and mercy.
On Naboth 68Ambrose · ca. 386-390 · Alternatively, the call to pray and offer is addressed to the poor, who are near to God, while the rich are made far off by avarice.
On the Duties of the Clergy 1.18Ambrose · ca. 386–390 · Modesty governs speech, silence, prayer, gait, and the covering of the body, as Susanna, Mary, the tax collector, and the law of priestly breeches show.
On the Duties of the Clergy 1.20Ambrose · ca. 386–390 · Clergy should avoid the company of the intemperate, the banquets of outsiders, and needless visits to widows and virgins, and spend free time in reading and prayer.
On the Duties of the Clergy 1.45Ambrose · ca. 386–390 · The seemly and the honourable are inseparable, like beauty and health, and Scripture teaches seemliness in God’s works, in worship, and in women’s modest dress at prayer.
Exposition of Psalm 118 2.29.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The king’s chamber is the secret place of Christ’s knowledge and of the praying soul.
Exposition of Psalm 118 3.4.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Like an athlete seeking the crown, the righteous may ask confidently for their reward.
Exposition of Psalm 118 3.46.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · David fought the unseen enemy with prayer and God’s statutes, not with the arts of war.
Exposition of Psalm 118 3.46.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The righteous man speaks always to God or of God’s works, never of earthly things.
Exposition of Psalm 118 5.27.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Prayer against greed is heard only if the heart agrees with the words.
Exposition of Psalm 118 5.40.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The psalmist’s prayer teaches us how to pray.
Exposition of Psalm 118 6.8.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The soul that prays constantly suddenly perceives the presence of the Word, her bridegroom.
Exposition of Psalm 118 6.13.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · David, like the stag, fed on the slanders of his enemies and answered them with prayer.
Exposition of Psalm 118 7.26.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ, the true Solomon, gave his church singers whose psalms drive away evil spirits, as David’s did for Saul.
Exposition of Psalm 118 7.30.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · On verse 55: the righteous remember God by night and prove it by keeping his law.
Exposition of Psalm 118 7.31.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · David wept and prayed at night; we should not give the whole night to sleep.
Exposition of Psalm 118 7.31.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Night, when sin seems hidden, is the time to pray, for God sees all.
Exposition of Psalm 118 7.32.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The penitent washes his bed with tears; we should give most of the night to reading and prayer.
Exposition of Psalm 118 7.33.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The church sought Christ in the night of the prophets and believed.
Exposition of Psalm 118 7.37.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · On verse 56: by seeking God’s statutes the psalmist remembers his name even by night; Ambrose ends the sermon with a doxology.
Exposition of Psalm 118 8.39.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Solomon prayed to be spared both riches and poverty, the two greatest temptations.
Exposition of Psalm 118 8.46.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · On verse 62: we should rise at midnight to pray, as Christ spent nights in prayer.
Exposition of Psalm 118 8.46.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ prayed for our pardon; the psalmist teaches rising at night and especially at midnight.
Exposition of Psalm 118 8.46.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Midnight is the time to confess and guard against temptation.
Exposition of Psalm 118 8.49.4Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ received in the evening sacrament guards the night and rouses us to pray at midnight.
Exposition of Psalm 118 8.50.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Paul and Silas prayed at midnight in prison and were freed.
Exposition of Psalm 118 8.50.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Midnight is the hour of temptation and of heavenly help, so we must rise and pray.
Exposition of Psalm 118 8.52.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · In the spiritual midday we feast with Christ; in the night of temptation we must rise, pray, and sing psalms until he dawns.
Exposition of Psalm 118 8.53.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Rise and keep watch, for Christ calms the storm in the watchful heart and the bridegroom comes at midnight.
Exposition of Psalm 118 8.53.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · We must rise to thank God and ascribe every good to his justice and mercy, always.
Exposition of Psalm 118 11.8.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Paul saw Christ in prayer; with such inner eyes the prophets were called seers.
Exposition of Psalm 118 11.13.4Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The cooling snow of God’s word, continence, and fasting quench the heat of lust.
Exposition of Psalm 118 11.22.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · In times of persecution, the soul clung to God and prayed with its whole heart.
Exposition of Psalm 118 14.24.5Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · David offers God the voluntary sacrifice of his mouth, like the bee of Proverbs; it is the sacrifice of praise.
Exposition of Psalm 118 17.9.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The heart cries silently to God, as Moses and Hannah did, with the Spirit crying “Abba, Father.”
Exposition of Psalm 118 17.13.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · God’s merciful look means he does not despise the prayers of the poor.
Exposition of Psalm 118 19.2.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The soul enclosed by sin should know itself and seek Christ the doctor through prayer.
Exposition of Psalm 118 19.3.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Lamentations’ qoph verse calls Jerusalem to pour out her heart to the Lord.
Exposition of Psalm 118 19.7.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · David cried out to God when pressed by visible persecutors and invisible ones.
Exposition of Psalm 118 19.7.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Against spiritual powers one cries with the heart, not the voice.
Exposition of Psalm 118 19.8.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The heart has a voice, like Abel’s blood; faith cries “Abba, Father” by the Spirit.
Exposition of Psalm 118 19.9.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Hannah spoke to God for a private good; Moses cried for the whole people.
Exposition of Psalm 118 19.10.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Moses, though silent, was heard by God; the complaining people were not.
Exposition of Psalm 118 19.10.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Only Moses truly cried to God, hoping in him.
Exposition of Psalm 118 19.11.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The wise cry in their hearts; Wisdom and Christ call to the drink of life; pray for eternal things.
Exposition of Psalm 118 19.11.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Pray not for money or property but for heavenly things; God hears devout prayer.
Exposition of Psalm 118 19.12.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Prayer must come from the whole heart, not just the lips.
Exposition of Psalm 118 19.16.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The Greek “untimely” means prayer is not tied to set times; Christ should always be in heart and mouth.
Exposition of Psalm 118 19.18.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ prayed all night to give us an example; we should always be ready to pray.
Exposition of Psalm 118 19.18.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Rise to pray at midnight; the soul that thinks of Christ is always in light.
Exposition of Psalm 118 19.22.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Pray at midnight and before sunrise; it is shameful for the sun to find you in bed.
Exposition of Psalm 118 19.22.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · We owe God the firstfruits of each day; meet the sunrise prepared in prayer.
Exposition of Psalm 118 19.23.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The church sought Christ by night and found him; she invites him to the field.
Exposition of Psalm 118 19.23.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ freed Adam’s exiled race; the world became fruitful with the eternal vine.
Exposition of Psalm 118 19.25.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Instructed in both Testaments, the church holds Christ in prayer and kisses him in psalmody.
Exposition of Psalm 118 19.30.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ, the Sun of righteousness, waits to be met in repentance and prayer.
Exposition of Psalm 118 19.30.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Rise before the sun to pray, and Christ will shine in your heart.
Exposition of Psalm 118 19.30.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Meditating on God’s words by night brings the light of grace and joy in prayer.
Exposition of Psalm 118 19.31.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The Jews recite Scripture night and day; Christians, taught by Christ, are shamed by their sloth.
Exposition of Psalm 118 19.32.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Give the night to prayer and the morning first to church, then go to work.
Exposition of Psalm 118 19.32.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Begin the day with hymns and the Beatitudes.
Exposition of Psalm 118 19.33.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Even the righteous must pray to be heard by God’s mercy, not their merits.
Exposition of Psalm 118 19.42.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · As Moses alone climbed Sinai, the soul that rises above temptation in contrition draws near to God.
Exposition of Psalm 118 20.8.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The verse fits a bishop, a father or a wife praying and fasting in distress for a loved one.
Exposition of Psalm 118 20.34.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ as advocate prayed all night to show how a bishop should intercede.
Exposition of Psalm 118 20.52.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Unlike those wasted by lust, greed or ambition, David pined with longing for God and prayed before dawn.
Exposition of Psalm 118 20.55.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Offer yourself to God in secret, and the Father will reward you.
Exposition of Psalm 118 21.15.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Praise seven times a day signifies pure prayer, free of anger and sinful desire.
Exposition of Psalm 118 21.15.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Pray for nothing harmful, praise God with an undivided mind.
Exposition of Psalm 118 22.5.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · A good life and the Spirit give prayer wings; the completed man prays with confidence.
Exposition of Psalm 118 22.5.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Prayer rises on righteousness and purity; sin weighs it down.
Exposition of Psalm 118 22.5.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The cry of the Hebrews in Egypt ascended because they hated their muddy labor.
Exposition of Psalm 118 22.6.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Moses drew near himself; David modestly asked only that his prayer draw near.
Exposition of Psalm 118 22.8.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Prayer rises with our deeds; asking for worldly or shameful things turns prayer into sin.
Exposition of Psalm 118 22.12.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The prayer progresses: drawing near, asking understanding, then entering.
Exposition of Psalm 118 22.12.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · As with a great man’s house, we approach, learn and then beg to enter God’s palace by prayer.
Exposition of Psalm 118 22.12.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Knock with voice or finger, like Thomas; Christ is the door.
Exposition of Psalm 118 22.13.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · As at court, we must ask God that our prayer may enter the door of his mercy.
Exposition of Psalm 118 22.15.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Prayer for the needy and prayer of the whole church has dignity and enters God’s house.
Exposition of Psalm 118 22.17.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · One who has tasted God’s sweet precepts pours forth hymns.
Exposition of Psalm 118 22.19.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Feed daily on Scripture so as to overflow with praise.
Exposition of Psalm 118 22.44.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Paul and David are mountains of spices, fragrant to God.
Letter 20.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine tells Antoninus that his love for goodness in others profits him even if they fall short, and asks for his prayers.
Letter 21.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine begs Valerius by Christ to grant the time he asks and to pray for him.
Letter 22.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine asks Aurelius to pray for him, to send the aged Saturninus to visit, and thanks him for the land given to the brothers.
Letter 24.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Paulinus describes himself as a recent convert and asks Alypius for his prayers and letters.
Letter 25.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Paulinus, older in years but young in faith, asks Augustine to be his father in spiritual learning and to support him with his prayers.
Letter 27.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine says he cannot believe Paulinus's praise of him but gladly believes his love, and gives himself wholly to him, asking for his prayers.
Letter 27.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine introduces the bearer, his friend Romanianus, warns Paulinus not to trust his praise, and asks him to pray for his faults, since whatever is good in his books is God's.
Letter 29.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · In the afternoon the crowd grew; Augustine contrasted their spiritual feast with the drinking in the Donatists' basilica, and the day ended with evening prayer and hymns.
Letter 29.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine asks for prayers, reports that Circumcellions have broken the altar of the Catholic church at Asna, and closes.
Letter 30.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Paulinus longs to see Augustine in the flesh and commends to him the bearers Romanus and Agilis.
Letter 37.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine promises to answer Simplicianus's questions and asks him to pray for him and correct his writings.
Letter 48.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine asks the monks of Capraria for their prayers, since secular business presses heavily on him as bishop.
Letter 48.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine urges the monks to do all their works, prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and mutual forbearance, for the glory of God.
Letter 55.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains the scriptural basis and number symbolism of the forty days of Lent and the fifty days of Easter, when fasting is relaxed and prayer is made standing.
Letter 55.32Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine distinguishes what rests on Scripture (Easter, Pentecost) from what rests on church agreement (Lent, the octave of the newly baptized) and from local variation (Alleluia, standing at prayer).
Letter 55.34Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine gives the rule for local customs: follow what helps a better life unless it causes greater harm, and he commends the singing of psalms against Donatist criticism.
Letter 63.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains how he rebuked those responsible, admonished Timothy and Carcedonius, and prayed, before Timothy left for Milevis.
Letter 80.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine sends Paulinus of Nola a hasty note by Celsus, promising a longer letter and asking for his prayers.
Letter 111.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine answers those who ask why God's servants suffer by quoting the confession of sins made by Azariah in the furnace.
Letter 111.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine quotes Daniel's prayer of confession in captivity to show that even the holiest acknowledge that God justly chastises them for their sins.
Letter 111.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine comforts Victorianus about captive consecrated women, telling how a captive nun's prayers healed her captors and won her release.
Letter 111.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine asks Victorianus to pray that the captive women may offer God the sacrifice of a humble spirit, as Azariah did when no sacrifice was possible.
Letter 120.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine urges Consentius to pray for understanding and shows from Isaiah's conflicting images that Scripture's bodily language about God must be understood spiritually.
Letter 121.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Paulinus asks how the four kinds of prayer in 1 Timothy 2:1 differ.
Letter 130.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine begins his letter to the widow Proba on prayer, praising her concern to pray night and day.
Letter 130.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · God, for whom it is easy to save the rich, has inspired Proba's concern to pray, and the rich must hope in God, not in riches.
Letter 130.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · In this dark life the Christian soul should count itself desolate and keep praying, looking to Scripture until it sees God in the true life to come, where prayer will give way to contemplation.
Letter 130.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · A true widow must count herself desolate and not set her heart on pleasures, caring for the body only for the sake of health.
Letter 130.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · What one should pray for is, in brief, the happy life, which all desire but only the good attain.
Letter 130.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Well-being and friendship are sought for their own sake, and friendship extends to all people, even enemies; we should pray to keep or gain them.
Letter 130.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The one thing to ask is to dwell in God's house; Christ forbade much speaking yet urged persistent prayer by the parables of the unjust judge and the friend at midnight.
Letter 130.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Christ's sayings on asking, seeking, and knocking are interpreted allegorically: fish, egg, and bread signify faith, hope, and love.
Letter 130.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · God, who knows our needs, has us pray so that our desire may be exercised and enlarged to receive the great gift he prepares.
Letter 130.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · We pray always by desire, but pray in words at set times to rekindle that desire; our requests are made known to ourselves, or to the angels, not to God, who knows them already.
Letter 130.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Long prayer is not the forbidden 'much speaking', for Christ himself prayed all night and at length.
Letter 130.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The Egyptian monks' short, frequent prayers show that attention matters; prayer is a matter more of groans and tears than of many words.
Letter 130.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains each petition of the Lord's Prayer as a reminder to ourselves of what we should desire, the bread meaning either sufficiency or the sacrament.
Letter 130.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · All rightful prayers, including those of Scripture, say in other words what the Lord's Prayer contains; to ask for what it cannot include is to pray carnally.
Letter 130.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · We should pray these petitions for all, even enemies; prayers for wealth and honor out of greed have no place in the Lord's Prayer.
Letter 130.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The happy life is God himself; faith, hope, and love lead the one who prays to him, and fasting, self-restraint, and almsgiving help prayer.
Letter 130.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · We do not know what to pray for as we ought because tribulations may benefit us, as Paul learned when his prayer to remove the thorn in the flesh was refused.
Letter 130.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · God sometimes grants impatient requests in anger and refuses others in mercy; we should accept his will, as Christ did in Gethsemane.
Letter 130.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The one thing, eternal contemplation of God, may be asked with certainty, yet even it surpasses understanding, so we know only what it is not.
Letter 130.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The Spirit's intercession means that he makes the saints pray with unutterable groanings, giving them a 'learned ignorance' of what they desire.
Letter 130.29Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Proba should pray as a widow of Christ, for Scripture specially enjoins prayer on widows, as the examples of Hannah, Anna, and the persistent widow show.
Letter 130.30Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Every soul away from the Lord is a widow; Proba should pray as poor and desolate, and her household of widows and virgins should do likewise.
Letter 130.31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine asks for their prayers and urges them to fast and keep vigil according to each one's strength, without hindering or pressing one another.
Letter 140.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · God 'forsakes' us by not granting temporal goods, but not for the better things he wants us to desire; he seeks a holy dwelling in the love poured out by the Spirit.
Letter 140.44Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The 'new song' is sung by Christ in us, in the church spread over all the earth; it is the praise of God sung in the heart.
Letter 140.59Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · God did not despise the prayer of the poor and humble one; though he 'forsook' Christ in temporal things, he heard him and did not depart from him.
Letter 140.60Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Christ's praise is in the great church spread through all nations; confession is also praise, and the poor who eat and are satisfied are the humble 'little ones'.
Letter 140.69Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The psalm ends with prophecy: 'the generation to come will be announced to the Lord', not to inform God, but as angels present our prayers, which build us up and testify that God is our good.
Letter 145.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Since love comes from the Holy Spirit, those who lack it must ask for it in prayer, and with it can glory even in tribulation.
Letter 145.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine warns against those (the Pelagians, unnamed) who claim that the will can fulfill the law without grace, which would make the Lord's Prayer pointless.
Letter 149.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine turns to 1 Timothy 2:1, noting that the Greek uses different words (παρακαλῶ, δεήσεις) where some Latin copies repeat 'beseech.'
Letter 149.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine discusses the Latin words for the kinds of prayer in 1 Timothy 2:1 and their Greek equivalents, rejecting 'adorations' as a rendering of προσευχάς.
Letter 149.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine notes that 'intercessions' and 'requests' both render the Greek ἐντεύξεις, the same word used of Christ interceding for us.
Letter 149.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Though the words for prayer overlap in common use, Paul's listing suggests each has its own proper sense, which is hard to determine.
Letter 149.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine maps the four kinds of prayer in 1 Timothy 2:1 onto the eucharistic liturgy: supplications before the consecration, prayers at the consecration and breaking, intercessions at the blessing of the people, thanksgiving after communion.
Letter 149.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Prayer must be offered for all, including persecuting rulers, because God wills all to be saved, but only through the one mediator, the man Christ Jesus, and sharing in his body and blood.
Letter 153.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The Lord's Prayer, prayed by the baptized, shows that God's adopted sons are good by grace yet still sinners needing daily forgiveness.
Letter 157.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · No one in this life is without sin, as 1 John, the Lord's Prayer, and Daniel's confession show.
Letter 157.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Free will avails for good only with God's help, as the petition "Lead us not into temptation" and 1 Cor 10:13 show.
Letter 157.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Grace does not abolish free will but helps it; whatever good one has is received from God, so one should glory in the Lord and pray humbly.
Letter 157.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Those who groan to God in the words of the psalms receive superabounding grace; Paul in Romans 7 credits deliverance to grace, not free choice.
Letter 167.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · God unites mercy and judgment; those who forgive and give find mercy for their daily sins.
Letter 175.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Pelagianism makes prayer for help against temptation and for perseverance in faith meaningless.
Letter 175.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Pelagianism also empties the bishops' blessings and Paul's prayers for strength of meaning.
Letter 176.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The council describes the Pelagian denial that prayer and grace are needed against sin and that unbaptized infants are lost.
Letter 177.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Prayer not to be led into temptation shows that grace is more than nature, free choice, forgiveness, or law: it is help to do the commandment.
Letter 177.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Every command (understanding, wisdom, self-control, avoiding evil, doing good) is matched by a prayer for the same thing, showing that law commands and grace helps.
Letter 177.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The claim that one can be sinless in this life is refuted from Zechariah's priestly sacrifices for his own sins and the Lord's Prayer.
Letter 177.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · To hope for sinlessness by grace is a tolerable error; but no believer may claim not to need “forgive us our debts.”
Letter 178.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The heresy empties the Lord's Prayer, claiming one can become sinless and overcome temptation by nature alone.
Letter 179.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Pelagius's book identifies grace with created nature and leaves no room for the help of God sought in prayer.
Letter 179.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Pelagian teaching contradicts the church's blessings and Paul's prayers and statements about the Spirit's help.
Letter 179.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Pelagius should be asked plainly whether we must pray not to sin and whether infants are freed from original sin by Christ's grace.
Letter 181.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · We need God's help daily, whether living well or badly; free choice alone cannot overcome sin.
Letter 181.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · David's constant prayer for God's help refutes the Pelagian claim that we do not need it.
Letter 181.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Those who deny the need for divine help are enemies of the faith and unworthy of communion, and must be removed from the church.
Letter 182.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The Pelagians, by denying God's help, abolish daily prayer; Adam's fall and David's prayers show our need of grace.
Letter 184.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Unbelievers must be answered by argument, but faith is God's gift and must be prayed for, as Paul, Christ, and Stephen prayed for their persecutors.
Letter 185.39Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The whole church prays “forgive us our debts” and is cleansed through baptism toward the perfection Christ will give it on the last day.
Letter 186.37Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · We should pray for the Pelagians, who like the philosophers trust the will and risk making void the cross, since nature could not even keep its health without grace.
Letter 186.38Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Though their error is their own fault, we must pray for them, as Paul prayed for unbelieving Israel, since belief itself requires God's grace.
Letter 186.41Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · All were present in Adam when he sinned, saved only by Christ born of a virgin; Augustine praises Paulinus's prayers for grace and refers further news to the bearer.
Letter 187.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · God is present everywhere by his divinity but dwells only in some by grace, which is why we pray 'Our Father, who are in heaven'.
Letter 187.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Even after baptism the whole Church prays 'Forgive us our debts'; she will be without spot or wrinkle only in the life to come.
Letter 188.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Demetrias should pray and give thanks, recognizing that her goods are in her but not from her alone, since God works both the will and the deed by inspiring love.
Letter 188.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Solomon knew continence was God's gift and prayed for it; Pelagius's words would make Demetrias think it comes from herself alone.
Letter 189.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine sums up his advice to Boniface in the two commandments of love, which he should grow in by prayer and good works.
Letter 189.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Monks fight for soldiers by prayer and soldiers for monks by arms; in this world the good must live among the wicked until the proper time.
Letter 189.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine urges Boniface to conjugal chastity, sobriety and detachment from riches, to humility and prayer, and to ready forgiveness of others.
Letter 194.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Faith, which prays, is itself given before prayer; why one believes and another does not lies in God's unsearchable but just judgment.
Letter 194.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Prayer cannot merit grace, since prayer itself is a gift: the Spirit 'intercedes' by making us pray.
Letter 194.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Paul means the Holy Spirit, who helps our weakness and is said to cry out because he makes us cry 'Abba, Father'.
Letter 194.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Faith and prayer, like all virtues, come from the one Holy Spirit, who helps unbelievers to believe and dwells in believers to help them further.
Letter 194.30Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · God makes the vessels of wrath but condemns, not causes, their iniquity, which comes from the human will; only grace frees, inspiring faith, fear and prayer.
Letter 211.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine says he stayed away to spare them and himself, praying instead for the community whose holy life had been his consolation.
Letter 211.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine prescribes set times of prayer, reserves the oratory for prayer, and asks that the heart attend to what the voice sings.
Letter 211.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine directs the nuns to end quarrels quickly, ask and give forgiveness, avoid harsh words, and keep their love spiritual rather than carnal.
Letter 211.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine concludes the rule, asking that it be read weekly as a mirror for self-examination.
Letter 213.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine asks the people to pray that God confirm the choice of Eraclius and notes that the proceedings are being officially recorded.
Letter 213.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine closes the assembly by asking the people to turn to the Eucharist and pray for the church, for himself, and for Eraclius.
Letter 214.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that good works, prayer, and faith are themselves gifts of God, so that grace precedes merit, though God will still crown good merit at the judgment.
Letter 214.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine urges the monks to believe in both free will and grace, showing from Scripture that even understanding is commanded of the will yet given by God.
Letter 215.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine reports reading with the monks Cyprian's On the Lord's Prayer and his own letter to Sixtus, both showing that good living and conversion are gifts of grace.
Letter 215.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine concludes that relying on one's own will turns aside to the right, while abusing grace as license turns aside to the left, and asks that the monk Florus be sent to him.
Letter 216.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Valentinus asks Augustine's prayers, commends Florus to him, and asks him to instruct the monastery on its rule.
Letter 217.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine writes to Vitalis of Carthage, who held that the beginning of faith comes from our own will, arguing that this view contradicts the Church's prayers for the right faith of others.
Letter 217.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine ironically challenges Vitalis to reject the liturgical prayers for unbelievers, catechumens, and the faithful, and Cyprian's book on the Lord's Prayer, if he holds that faith comes from the human will alone.
Letter 217.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues from Paul's prayer and from Psalm 37:23 that the good will to believe is itself God's gift, not something that precedes it.
Letter 217.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that if grace were only teaching applied to free will, prayer for the conversion and perseverance of others would be pointless, and that whatever must be asked of God is given by God.
Letter 217.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine cites Cyprian's interpretation of "Thy will be done on earth as in heaven" as a prayer for the conversion of unbelievers, which would be empty if God did not convert their wills.
Letter 217.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine warns that those who deny God's work in the will only pretend to pray and give thanks.
Letter 217.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues from Colossians 1:12–13 that God frees the will from the power of darkness, so that believers come to faith by free will and yet by grace.
Letter 217.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that God's answering prayers for unbelievers' conversion refutes the view that grace is mere nature or teaching, since we pray for the healing of their will.
Letter 217.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that believers pray for perseverance, and that God mixes those who will fall with those who will persevere so that all may walk in humble fear.
Letter 217.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine sets out twelve propositions of Catholic faith on original sin, grace, judgment, infant baptism, free will, and prayer for unbelievers.
Letter 217.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that it is the opponents of grace who undermine free will, and that God prepares the will by hidden inspiration, not merely by teaching.
Letter 217.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine asks whether Vitalis will forbid the Church's prayers for unbelievers or refuse to say Amen to them, or accuse Cyprian of error.
Letter 217.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine cites Paul's prayers for the Jews and his request that the Thessalonians pray for the word's progress, arguing that God himself makes unbelievers believe in answer to prayer.
Letter 217.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine concludes that God removes the heart of stone and prepares the will, as both prayer for unbelievers and thanksgiving for believers show.
Letter 217.29Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine distinguishes Vitalis's view from full Pelagianism: Vitalis grants that grace aids believers but holds that the beginning of faith comes from ourselves, which the Church's prayers refute.
Letter 217.30Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine concludes that if Vitalis accepts prayer and thanksgiving for the conversion of unbelievers, he must confess that God's grace precedes and changes the human will.
Letter 218.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine tells Palatinus that prayer itself shows our need of God's help to resist temptation, and that the beginning and completion of the good life are God's gifts.
Letter 218.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine sends Palatinus his parents' greetings and thanks him for the gift of haircloth, a reminder of humility in prayer.
Letter 220.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine tells Boniface to pray to be delivered from his necessities by conquering his desires and to use worldly goods as not using them.
Letter 220.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine contrasts earthly goods given to good and bad alike with eternal goods given only to the good, and urges alms, prayer and fasting.
Letter 228.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine concludes that flight is permitted only if the flock is not left without ministry, and commends prayer and the example of those who stayed.
Letter 230.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Darius recalls the story of King Abgar's letter to Christ and asks Augustine to intercede daily for his sins.
Letter 231.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine sends Darius the Confessions, telling him to see there what he really was and to praise God, and begs his prayers.
Letter 262.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine urges Ecdicia to pray for her husband, ask his pardon, and promise obedience if he returns to continence, noting that their son is legally in the father's power.
Letter 265.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine describes the daily penance of the faithful for small sins through the Lord's Prayer, fasting and almsgiving, comparing small sins to water seeping into a ship.
Letter 270.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · An unknown writer tells a friend, apparently a bishop, of his sorrow at missing him at Leges, asks his prayers, and points him to the day of judgment.
On Order 1.22Augustine of Hippo · 386–387 · At daybreak Licentius sings the psalm verse "God of hosts, turn us," which Monica had rebuked him for singing in the latrine the evening before.
On Order 1.23Augustine of Hippo · 386–387 · Augustine interprets Licentius's psalm as a prayer to be turned from the filth and darkness of the body and error toward the face of God, which is truth.
On Order 2.52Augustine of Hippo · 386–387 · Augustine urges good morals as the condition of being heard by God, asks Monica to pray for them, crediting her prayers with his love of truth, and praises Alypius.
Soliloquies 1.1Augustine of Hippo · 386–387 · Reason urges Augustine to write down what he finds, and he opens with a long prayer to God as the source of truth, wisdom, life and happiness, asking to be healed and to return to him.
Soliloquies 2.1Augustine of Hippo · 386–387 · Opening the second book with a short prayer, Augustine says that he knows he thinks but not whether he is immortal, and that he wants to live forever in order to know.
Soliloquies 2.6Augustine of Hippo · 386–387 · After Augustine prays for light, Reason shows from sight, hearing and the other senses that what we call false is always something that resembles the true.
Homilies on Matthew 5.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · James and the Lord's kinsmen gained nothing from kinship until they showed virtue; the prayers of saints avail only if we repent, as Scripture's examples show (Moses, Samuel, Jeremiah, Noah, Job, Daniel, Abraham); God prefers to give grace to us directly.
Homilies on Matthew 6.5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Moral section of Homily 6: Christians are cold where Paul and the first believers burned; the spiritual fire produces compunction and tears that unite us to God, as with the sinful woman and Hannah, provided they are not for display.
Homilies on Matthew 10.7John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Closing exhortation of Homily 10: persevere in prayer, for God delays and permits trials to draw us to himself, as parents frighten wandering children back to their arms; the saints shone in trials; bear afflictions with thanksgiving.
Homilies on Matthew 16.9John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ puts reconciliation with a brother before the offering of a gift at the altar, applies this to prayer and alms, and urges settling with an adversary quickly before the matter reaches the judge.
Homilies on Matthew 18.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Love and prayer for enemies are the ninth and highest step of a ladder of virtue whose reward is likeness to God; Christ’s own forgiveness on the cross makes it possible, and the angry man is to be pitied as one sick, while the whole sermon is shown to uproot anger, desire, and greed.
Homilies on Matthew 19.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ forbids almsgiving done to be seen, judging the intention rather than the outward act, and mocks the hypocrites who trumpet their alms while seeking their own glory.
Homilies on Matthew 19.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Alms are to be given in such secrecy that the left hand does not know, with God as spectator and future rewarder before the world; the hypocrites who pray in public to be seen already have their reward.
Homilies on Matthew 19.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Prayer in church must also be free of display and noise, joining the angels’ worship; then the Lord’s Prayer is expounded: God as common Father, the hallowing of his name by our lives, the longing for his kingdom, his will done on earth as in heaven, bread for the day, and the forgiveness of sins after baptism.
Homilies on Matthew 19.6John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Forgiveness of others is singled out after the prayer because it makes us masters of our own judgment; the last petitions are expounded, the devil being the evil one and God the King to whom all power belongs; and the hearers are made aware of the many sins they commit even in church.
Homilies on Matthew 19.11John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Forgiving enemies is the easiest way to the remission of sins, while praying against them insults God and turns the tongue into a beast’s teeth; Chrysostom rebukes the noise of his congregation during the reading of Scripture and urges reconciliation.
Homilies on Matthew 22.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Anxiety gains nothing, since God provides; we must seek the kingdom first and the rest is added; tomorrow’s trouble is not to be added to today’s; delay of judgment should be used for repentance, as Manasseh’s case shows.
Homilies on Matthew 22.5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · No sin is beyond the power of repentance and Christ’s grace, but God saves only the willing; persistent prayer, like that of the Syrophoenician woman, the importunate friend, the widow, and the prodigal son, is never refused.
Homilies on Matthew 22.6John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · God’s love is roused by the smallest spark of repentance and pours out its gifts to those who ask continually, so Christians, though sinning daily, should never despair but always come to him in prayer.
Homilies on Matthew 23.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ makes his commands easy by adding persevering prayer for the right things, sums up virtue in the golden rule, and shows that even the narrow way is easy because it passes and ends in life.
Homilies on Matthew 25.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The crowds marvel at Christ’s authority, which he confirms by cleansing the leper with “I will” and a touch; sending him to the priest honors the law, and the homily closes on thanksgiving, the Eucharist, and humility.
Homilies on Matthew 31.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Excessive mourning shames the dead, scandalizes unbelievers and contradicts the prayers offered for the departed; the property of the dead should be given in alms on their behalf, and Christ’s death and resurrection forbid lament.
Homilies on Matthew 50.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ withdraws to pray in solitude and leaves the disciples in the storm to train their endurance, then comes walking on the sea and lets the fervent Peter walk to him.
Homilies on Matthew 51.5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · One who would not pray with filthy hands should not pray with a tongue soiled by insult and anger; Chrysostom urges that the tongue be cleansed by repentance, bridled, and adorned with gentleness, before approaching the awesome God.
Homilies on Matthew 51.6John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · No one can be wronged except by himself: the robber harms himself as a fevered man harms himself by snatching water, so the robbed should pray for the robber, and all should flee love of money, a madness worse than a madman’s sword.
Homilies on Matthew 52.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · After freeing the disciples from the food laws Christ goes toward Gentile territory, where the Canaanite woman, from a nation once cast out, comes out of her borders and pleads for her daughter, and he at first does not answer her.
Homilies on Matthew 52.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The Canaanite woman, rebuffed by silence and called a little dog, turns Christ’s words into her plea with humility and faith, and Christ, who delayed in order to reveal her virtue, praises her great faith and heals her daughter.
Homilies on Matthew 52.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The woman’s persistence succeeds where the apostles failed; Christ heals the crowds on the mountain at once to leave the ungrateful without excuse, and Chrysostom resumes his teaching that almsgiving is the best of all crafts.
Homilies on Matthew 54.5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The cross, which saved the world and routs demons, is the Christian’s boast before scoffing pagans; as soldiers of a King who is near to all, Christians can draw near to him by justice and almsgiving, which Isaiah 58 promises he will answer at once.
Homilies on Matthew 55.5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom praises the desert monks, who end their one frugal meal with a thanksgiving hymn that recalls the judgment, quotes the hymn, and explains each phrase as teaching trust in God, love for all, spiritual joy and abundance in good works.
Homilies on Matthew 55.6John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The monks’ hymn ends and begins again in doxology like Paul’s letters, thanks God even for food against the Manichaeans, asks for the Spirit and to escape shame at the judgment; Christians in cities and households, like the apostles’ converts and the married prophets, can share their wisdom.
Homilies on Matthew 57.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Fasting joined to prayer drives out demons, gives wings to the soul, and frees from avarice; luxury and drunkenness, the devil’s favorite tools, turn men into worse than swine, yet the fault is in the drunkard, not in God’s gift of wine.
Homilies on Matthew 60.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ teaches the wronged to reprove the offender privately, then before two or three, then before the church, seeking his healing rather than revenge, and binds the incorrigible; he promises that those who agree in prayer will be heard, though prayer fails when it asks what is harmful, seeks vengeance, or comes from the unrepentant.
Homilies on Matthew 66.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The two blind men near Jericho persevere against rebuke and are healed; Christ then sends for the donkey and colt, fulfilling Zechariah and entering Jerusalem openly now that the Passion is near.
Homilies on Matthew 68.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Contrasting the theater’s bitter pleasures with the monks’ life, Chrysostom describes the monks of the mountains, free of care, like Adam before the fall and like the angels, rising before dawn to sing hymns and pray for a good defense at the judgment, then working for the poor.
Homilies on Matthew 71.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Almsgiving is a mystery to be done behind closed doors, as the church’s prayers for the possessed, the penitents and the faithful are all prayers for mercy; display defeats even the glory it seeks.
Homilies on Matthew 83.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · In Gethsemane Christ prays apart, rebukes Peter and the sleeping disciples for their weakness, and by his sorrow, sweat and repeated prayer shows the truth of his humanity, while his “not as I will, but as you will” teaches us to follow God even when nature resists.
On what sort of wives to marry, section 6John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom explains that Abraham's servant asked God for a sign of hospitality rather than of wealth or beauty in Isaac's bride, and urges those about to marry to seek a wife through prayer to God rather than through matchmakers.
On Fleeing the World 28Ambrose · ca. 387-391 · David’s wings fail in one psalm and succeed in another because the just fight many contests; in the cave of the flesh he prevailed by prayer.
On Fleeing the World 29Ambrose · ca. 387-391 · David, unable to win by himself, spread his hands in prayer and asked Christ to lift him with his hand.
On Elijah and Fasting 55Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Instead of rising early to pray, the drunkard rises to drink, preferring music and wine to hymns and psalms.
Hexameron (Exameron) 3.23Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · The sea's islands shelter ascetics, and the church at worship, singing psalms antiphonally, is like the sea.
Hexameron (Exameron) 3.24Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Ambrose closes with a prayer for a safe voyage through life with Christ as helmsman.
Hexameron (Exameron) 4.30Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Rain comes from God's providence, not the new moon, as an answered prayer in Milan showed; but the moon does affect straits and tides.
Hexameron (Exameron) 5.36Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Resuming after a pause, Ambrose turns to the birds he had forgotten, whose songs at dawn and dusk shame men who neglect psalms.
Hexameron (Exameron) 5.84Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Night is falling, and the birds sing their evening thanks as they return to their nests.
Hexameron (Exameron) 5.88Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · The cock's crow brings hope, rouses prayer, and recalled Peter to repentance after his denial.
Hexameron (Exameron) 5.89Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Ambrose prays for Peter's tears of repentance, contrasting them with the joy of Pharaoh and Judas.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.7.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The Psalms teach patience and arm us against evil spirits, as David's playing drove off Saul's spirit.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.9.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · A psalm is wholly its own, and is the praise and joy of the whole people.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.9.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The psalm serves day and night and makes one song from many voices.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.9.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Psalm-singing suits every age and both sexes, women included.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.9.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Children learn the psalms gladly, and the psalm creates its own silence in church.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.9.5Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The psalm is sung by kings and peoples alike and makes the people one.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.9.6Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · In the singing people the Spirit plays without error, and the psalm softens hard hearts.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.10.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · What is learned with sweetness in the psalms is retained.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.12.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · We must sing inwardly and with the mind, not for the body's pleasure.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 35.25.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · We must watch and pray, for the enemy comes by night.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 35.26.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · David prays against pride, which tripped Adam even in paradise.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.13.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · God grants the requests of the inner man, not of the flesh.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.13.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Psalm 20 likewise asks that God grant what is according to the heart.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.30.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · God's hand heals; pray always to be strengthened.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.48.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Pray that your steps be directed and keep the straight path.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.65.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Faith brings the spirit of wisdom; prayer before dawn and psalmody redeem.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.66.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Speak with counsel; on the way, speak to Christ, who is the way.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.66.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Overcome sleep by diligence, as David did with prayer and tears.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.66.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Rouse Christ by thinking of him, and he will raise you.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.15.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · When God wills to forgive, he gives the grace to pray, as David prayed for his people.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.15.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · God wills to be asked, and reveals what moves us to pray.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.18.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · God's reward outruns our prayer, as with the thief.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.35.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · David bowed himself in prayer, for the humble man's prayer pierces the clouds.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.36.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The wordless groan is the Spirit's prayer, which God does not despise.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.37.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Guard the soul's doors in prayer; no axe or hammer enters the Lord's house.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.37.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Groaning with conversion is heard, as Peter's was; Ahab's was not lasting.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.38.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · "All my desire before you" means the petitions of prayer, not boasting.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.40.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The saints call on God as if absent, to seek his presence.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.47.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · David, silent before men, spoke to God in hope.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.47.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · David speaks only to God, who forgives and raises the fallen.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.48.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · David prayed to persevere, lest his enemies boast if he faltered.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.59.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Penance with prayer and tears is light compared with the glory to come.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.7.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The devil is beaten by God's word; Christ, Moses and Susanna were silent yet heard.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.8.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · When troubled, David put on sackcloth and fasted.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.10.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The just man is silent, prays, blesses, and loves his enemies.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.10.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Praying for enemies is more than silence.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.10.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Praying for persecutors is the fullness of the gospel, as Job prayed for his friends.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.11.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Pray when weak for yourself, when strong for your enemy.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.11.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Prayer for enemies returns as blessing into one's own bosom.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.36.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The wise man longs for eternity, a stranger on earth.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 39.16.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Christ taught caution, not presumption, in the face of persecution, and in Gethsemane he spoke, prayed and grieved as man.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 40.9.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Christ, our advocate, prays that the believer be preserved, given life and made blessed.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 40.14.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · In spiritual combat we must confess our sins, since the physician demands confession before he heals.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 40.36.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · “So be it” can command, pray, or confirm; here it confirms the blessing.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 40.40.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The psalmist sings in joy, while Paul was still in the contest, though he too sang with spirit and mind.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 40.41.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · There is a twofold voice; the psalmist’s “my voice” is the inner voice that does not err.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 40.41.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The inner voice is that of Moses’ silent cry and Hannah’s silent prayer, which God hears and repays.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 40.41.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The prayer of the righteous returns to them with its fruit; Ambrose closes with the psalm’s doxology.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.24.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The saint never ceases to praise God, unmoved by grief, like David and Job.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.29.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The righteous enter into God as Moses into the cloud, and pray to the Father in secret.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.50.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The Canaanite woman, first of the gentiles to come out to Christ, won his praise of her great faith by her persevering prayer.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.84.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The righteous ask for help when tempted, as the apostles woke Christ in the storm, as if praying this psalm.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 45.4.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Prayer in the secret room is the hidden place of wisdom, where God finds our patience and humility.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 45.8.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The greater the tribulations, the greater God’s help; in harder contests, through tears and prayer, we are crowned.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 45.9.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The mountain moved by faith is the demon; perfect faith, like mustard seed, must be joined to love.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 48.7.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · A good psaltery is a life in harmony with faith; through such men Christ opens the prophets’ hidden sense.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 61.30.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · We pour out our hearts to receive the Spirit poured out, opening all our thoughts to God.
Sermon 3.1Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388-407 · text not on this site
Sermon 40.1Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388-407 · text not on this site
Tractates on Matthew 13.1Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388–407 · Chromatius teaches that prayer should be made in the secret of the heart, as Hannah, Daniel, Cornelius and Jonah prayed and were heard.
Tractates on Matthew 13.2Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388–407 · Chromatius teaches that prayer is heard for faith and humility, not many words, as in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.
Tractates on Matthew 14.1Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388–407 · Chromatius begins his exposition of the Lord's Prayer: by calling God 'Father', believers reborn in baptism are made sons of God and must live accordingly.
Tractates on Matthew 14.2Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388–407 · Chromatius explains that in praying 'hallowed be your name' we ask that God's name be made holy in us.
Tractates on Matthew 14.3Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388–407 · Chromatius explains that in praying 'your kingdom come' we ask for the coming of the heavenly kingdom promised to us, for which we must make ourselves worthy.
Tractates on Matthew 14.4Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388–407 · Chromatius explains that in praying 'your will be done' we ask that God's will be done in us as by the angels, or that unbelievers may come to faith.
Tractates on Matthew 14.5Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388–407 · Chromatius explains 'daily bread' as the food needed for today and, spiritually, the Eucharistic bread of the Lord's body, received daily.
Tractates on Matthew 14.6Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388–407 · Chromatius explains that we must forgive others as we ask God to forgive us, or our own prayer condemns us, as in the parable of the unforgiving servant.
Tractates on Matthew 14.7Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388–407 · Chromatius explains the petitions against temptation and evil, sums up the Lord's Prayer, and stresses that forgiveness depends on forgiving others.
Tractates on Matthew 15.1Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388–407 · Chromatius teaches that fasting, like prayer, must be done for God alone and not for human praise, or its reward is lost.
Homily 7.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The Son is begotten radiance of the Father, co-eternal yet with his own hypostasis against Sabellius and Marcellus; rather than pry into God, Christians should repent through confession, forgiving others, almsgiving, prayer and fasting.
Homily 36.1 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The pool of Bethesda prefigures baptism, in which the Spirit, not the water alone, looses sins; the paralytic's patience shames our sloth, and toil was joined to virtue because ease corrupted us.
Homily 42.1 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ withdraws before his enemies, feeds the five thousand after testing Philip, gives thanks to show his agreement with the Father, and flees when the crowd, filled with bread, would make him king.
Homily 43.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The crowd seeks Christ only for food, though his walking on the sea surpassed Moses' crossing; we should pray, as the Lord's Prayer teaches, for spiritual rather than earthly goods.
Homily 44.4 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · We should ask God for spiritual goods, which endure, rather than for the passing goods of this life.
Homily 78.4 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Concord and friendship multiply each person's strength and safety; even monks in the mountains are bound to others in love, and the church's kiss in the mysteries and its common prayers express this unity.
Homily 79.1 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ prepares the disciples for his departure with the image of a woman's labor pains turned to joy, foretelling his death and resurrection and the power of prayer in his name.
Homily 80.1 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ teaches by deeds and turns to prayer to confirm his disciples; asking to be glorified, he shows that he goes willingly to the cross and that the Father wills the gospel to reach all nations.
Homily 81.1 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ has made the Father's name known to the disciples given him; that all the Father's things are the Son's and the Son's the Father's shows their equality, and “you gave me” is said by condescension.
Homily 82.1 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom explains Christ's prayer that the disciples be kept from the evil one and sanctified in the truth, reading “I sanctify myself” as Christ offering himself as a sacrifice.
The Teacher 1Augustine of Hippo · 389 · Augustine and his son Adeodatus agree that speech serves to teach or to remind, and that even prayer in words serves only to remind ourselves or others, since God dwells in the inner man.
Life of Hilarion 8Jerome · ca. 390–392 · A demon rides Hilarion like a donkey when his mind wanders in prayer.
Life of Hilarion 32Jerome · ca. 390–392 · Near Aphroditon Hilarion's prayer ends a three-year drought, and blessed oil heals those bitten by the snakes that follow.
Matthaei, chapter 36Nemesius of Emesa · ca. 390-400 · Nemesius refutes the Egyptian astrologers who hold that fate by the stars can be averted by prayer and rites.
Matthaei, chapter 38Nemesius of Emesa · ca. 390-400 · Nemesius reports Plato's account of fate as subordinate to providence and contingent on our choices, insists against it that providence acts contingently and that God is lord of necessity, and rejects the Stoic doctrine of endless cosmic restoration.
Excellence of Monks, chapter 16Nilus of Ancyra · ca. 390-430 · Christ preferred Mary, who sat undistracted at his word, to Martha busy with serving, gently rebuking Martha's zeal for hospitality.
Excellence of Monks, chapter 20Nilus of Ancyra · ca. 390-430 · Passions are strong when their objects are present and weak without them; memories can be overcome by prayer and Scripture, but one who lives in the world cannot escape its stains.
Excellence of Monks, chapter 21Nilus of Ancyra · ca. 390-430 · Harm absorbed gradually goes unnoticed, like poison taken in small doses; even David, after a life of virtue, let his eye wander and fell into adultery and murder, so one must flee bad company.
Excellence of Monks, chapter 23Nilus of Ancyra · ca. 390-430 · A mind freed from vain cares turns to prayer, reading and contemplation of creation, and can watch its passions decline; the busy ascetic has no leisure to know his own state.
Excellence of Monks, chapter 27Nilus of Ancyra · ca. 390-430 · Even a blameless city ascetic suffers from witnessing injustice and may even blame God, as Habakkuk did; the desert monk's virtues are seen by God alone, who rewards them with eternal life.
Monastic Exercise, chapter 74Nilus of Ancyra · ca. 390-430 · Beginners must check the passions' actions, the advanced must guard their thoughts; as a passion absorbs the mind, so should zeal for virtue.
Voluntary Poverty, chapter 6Nilus of Ancyra · ca. 390-430 · Christ's commands to pray and give in secret show that the desire for praise, like a moth or a thief, destroys the treasure of good works.
Voluntary Poverty, chapter 10Nilus of Ancyra · ca. 390-430 · Christ and Paul teach both having nothing and indifference to glory; one who has done all he was commanded must call himself an unprofitable servant who has only paid a debt.
Voluntary Poverty, chapter 21Nilus of Ancyra · ca. 390-430 · John the Baptist and the apostles, with whom monastic life began, owned nothing; this is not the idleness of Adelphius and Alexander, who used continual prayer as an excuse not to work.
Voluntary Poverty, chapter 22Nilus of Ancyra · ca. 390-430 · Prayer prolonged in idleness becomes a battlefield of thoughts: the body kneels while the mind wanders to friends, enemies, feasts, business and imagined church office.
Voluntary Poverty, chapter 23Nilus of Ancyra · ca. 390-430 · True prayer is a mind possessed by God and free of every other thought; those who refuse work for the sake of prayer only want to eat at others' expense, while alternating work and prayer refreshes both.
Voluntary Poverty, chapter 24Nilus of Ancyra · ca. 390-430 · Idleness feeds the passions, above all at prayer; Paul therefore commanded the Thessalonians to keep away from the idle and to work and eat their own bread.
Voluntary Poverty, chapter 26Nilus of Ancyra · ca. 390-430 · Those who refuse manual work for the sake of prayer do not truly pray, for an idle body lets the mind wander, while work holds it in place.
Voluntary Poverty, chapter 27Nilus of Ancyra · ca. 390-430 · Prayer needs an undistracted mind; the perfect pray in rapture, like Paul caught up to the third heaven and in the temple, and Peter on the roof.
Voluntary Poverty, chapter 28Nilus of Ancyra · ca. 390-430 · The second kind of prayer is saying the words with attention and compunction; God cannot be asked to hear a prayer the one praying does not hear himself.
Voluntary Poverty, chapter 29Nilus of Ancyra · ca. 390-430 · The middle way, which works with its hands only for necessity and gives most of its time to prayer and reading, ranks second after the saints' total poverty.
Voluntary Poverty, chapter 34Nilus of Ancyra · ca. 390-430 · The monk has left all to follow Christ and died to the passions; one burdened with herds and fields has no time to remember God, pray or watch his thoughts.
Voluntary Poverty, chapter 35Nilus of Ancyra · ca. 390-430 · Evil thoughts first appear in respectable guise; and a monk busy with property is kept awake at night by quarrels over boundaries, crops and water, with no peace for prayer.
Voluntary Poverty, chapter 45Nilus of Ancyra · ca. 390-430 · We were made in God's image to show his features of mercy and goodness; the soul shows its kinship with God by needing little, and the quiet, prayerful monk is God's living image.
Voluntary Poverty, chapter 56Nilus of Ancyra · ca. 390-430 · Anxiety over what we cannot control is a dream that leaves us thirsty; all our time belongs to thanksgiving, study of the law and unceasing prayer.
Voluntary Poverty, chapter 57Nilus of Ancyra · ca. 390-430 · Scripture's commands exceed our strength so that we stay humble and keep striving; virtue, unlike a craft, has no fixed end and always stays a little ahead, like the place Abraham saw from afar.
On Two Souls 24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391–392 · Augustine appeals to his friends still among the Manichaeans, prays to the triune God for them, and defers the defense of Scripture against Manichaean charges to other books.
Sermon 9.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Avoid magic and the shows; small daily sins, deadly by their number, are cleansed by almsgiving, fasting and prayer, and perfect almsgiving includes forgiving those who hurt us.
Sermon 9.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Avarice and lavish gifts to performers are both condemned; Christ in the poor asks for what we have, and by good works, prayer, fasting and alms, forgiving as we are forgiven, we walk safely on Christ the way to the eternal sabbath.
Sermon 15.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The good must bear with the bad outside the Church and within it until the winnowing, answer the slanders of pagans by good lives, and pray for their enemies as the Lord commands.
Sermon 15.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The command to love and pray for enemies is hard, but its promise is great, to be sons of the Most High; the willing heart is gold, and its struggle against the flesh is the dross God purifies.
Sermon 17.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God, now silent, will rebuke the sinner by setting him before his own face at the judgment; now is the time of mercy, when daily sins are washed by the Lord's Prayer before communion.
Sermon 20.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The soul can wound itself by sin but cannot heal itself; it must pray, with the penitent of Psalm 51, for God to create a clean heart, and not despair.
Sermon 20.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The sinner must accuse himself, not excuse himself by blaming fortune, fate or the devil; God turns his face from the sins of one who acknowledges them, for sin must be punished either by the penitent or by God.
Sermon 21.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Rejoice in the inner goods God commands; if God does not grant earthly happiness when we pray, it is like a father refusing to put his little son on a horse out of love, while he keeps the whole estate for him.
Sermon 26.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · In the plain sense, “the Lord who made us” means that God creates every human being, and so will hear those he made when they weep before him.
Sermon 29.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God alone is good of himself and the source of all made goods; “confession” in Scripture means praise as well as confession of sin, as when the sinless Christ confesses to the Father.
Sermon 30.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Those who sang “let no iniquity rule over me” admit that they need God’s help; all who labor under sin should come to Christ, who alone can remake them.
Sermon 31.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The just are cheerful in doing good but weep in prayer as pilgrims longing for the homeland, especially when unbelievers mock, “Where is your God?”
Sermon 32.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The prosperity of the wicked tempts the just, but God is kinder when he refuses superfluous requests, which would only feed luxury and the shows.
Sermon 34.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine’s closing prayer, given here in full.
Sermon 36.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · We should come as beggars to God, who alone makes us rich; the tax collector who confessed his poverty went home justified, while the Pharisee, who thought himself rich, asked for nothing.
Sermon 37.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The distaff holds the work still to be done, the spindle the work already done; in prayer we can appeal only to good works already accomplished, so all our effort should pass onto the spindle.
Sermon 39.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God makes some poor to test the rich; each should give according to his means, even a cup of cold water, but alms avail only for those who change their life, not as a bribe to sin with impunity.
Sermon 40.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The preacher, as watchman, cannot promise safety where God threatens judgment; our only security is to heed God’s commands and pray for righteousness rather than worldly things.
Sermon 42.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · When we pray to be delivered from the evil man, we must first ask to be delivered from ourselves, from avarice, lust, and anger; no one can harm a just Christian, as Stephen’s death shows.
Sermon 45.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The mountain is not a place to climb for prayer but Christ and the Church spread through the whole world, against the Donatists, who are only a part.
Sermon 47.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Because God himself judges and cannot be deceived, the good may long for his judgment; the Lord’s Prayer is the medicine for sin, if we forgive others.
Sermon 49.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Before the faithful pray “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive,” they must forgive from the heart; the hater should look on Christ on the cross, who prayed for his executioners.
Sermon 49.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Stephen prayed standing for himself but knelt to pray for those who stoned him, because their sin was hard to forgive; this is the great work of the vineyard, to root out hatred of enemies.
Sermon 51.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Jechoniah’s exile prefigures Christ, rejected by his own people, whose Gospel passed to the Gentiles through Jewish apostles; as Jeremiah told the exiles to pray for Babylon, the Church prayed for kings, who became Christian.
Sermon 56.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine explains to the candidates for baptism why they received the Creed before the Lord’s Prayer: one must believe before one can call on God.
Sermon 56.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · In prayer one must ask from the right one, God, and ask for the right things, never for harm to enemies, for such prayer becomes sin.
Sermon 56.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The curses in the Psalms are prophecies, not wishes; we must pray for our enemies, as the Church prayed for the persecutor Saul until he became Paul.
Sermon 56.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Prayer needs devotion, not many words; God knows our needs, but wants us to pray so that we may desire his gifts, and the Lord’s Prayer is the pattern of our desires.
Sermon 56.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The candidates, already conceived in the Church’s womb, will be born of God the Father in baptism; asking that God’s name be hallowed means asking that it be held holy in us.
Sermon 56.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Praying “Your kingdom come” is asking that we may live so as to be found in God’s coming kingdom on the right hand.
Sermon 56.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God’s almighty will is done in everyone, in reward or condemnation; we pray that it may also be done by us, which he himself works in us.
Sermon 56.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · “As in heaven, so on earth” can mean the mind and the flesh, the spiritual and the carnal in the Church, or the Church and its enemies, for whom we pray.
Sermon 56.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · From the fourth petition on we plainly pray for ourselves; asking for daily bread makes everyone, even the rich, God’s beggar.
Sermon 56.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Bodily bread God gives to good and bad alike; the children’s daily bread is the word of God, and also the eucharist the baptized receive, from whose altar we pray not to be separated.
Sermon 56.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Even the baptized, bishops included, incur daily sins; the Lord’s Prayer and almsgiving are like pumping the bilge, so that small sins do not sink the ship.
Sermon 56.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Besides grave sins that exclude from the altar, countless small sins of eye, ear, tongue, and thought accumulate like sand, so the daily cleansing of the Lord’s Prayer is needed by all.
Sermon 56.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The petition is a pact with God; the candidates must forgive everyone from the heart before baptism, in which all their sins, original and personal, will be forgiven.
Sermon 56.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · We must love our enemies, who share our nature and are our brothers; pray, as the Church prayed for Saul, against their malice but for themselves, so that an enemy becomes a friend.
Sermon 56.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Few love their enemies, yet all who receive the eucharist pray “as we forgive”; Augustine cannot tell them not to pray, so they must both say it and do it.
Sermon 56.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · At the very least, forgive an enemy who asks pardon; Christ on the cross and Stephen under the stones forgave even those who did not ask.
Sermon 56.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Forgiving means letting go of hatred, not of discipline; whoever refuses pardon to one who asks harms himself, like the unforgiving servant of the Gospel.
Sermon 56.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The petition for forgiveness covers past sins, which cannot be undone; the petitions against temptation and evil guard against future ones.
Sermon 56.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The first three petitions concern eternal life; the last four the needs of this life, which will cease when we are equal to the angels.
Sermon 57.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The candidates first learned the Creed, what to believe; now they learn the Prayer, how to call on him in whom they believe.
Sermon 57.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The only Son of God willed to have countless brothers, so that we too call his Father “our Father”; with God as Father and the Church as Mother we are born to eternal life.
Sermon 57.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · If we pray so earnestly for rain to put off death a little, how much more should we pray to reach the life where there is no death.
Sermon 57.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · “Hallowed be your name” asks that God’s ever-holy name may make us holy.
Sermon 57.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God’s kingdom has no beginning or end; in praying “Your kingdom come” we ask to be among his kingdom, the redeemed, when he comes to raise the dead and set the blessed on his right.
Sermon 57.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · “Your will be done” has many senses: angels and us, saints and sinners, Church and enemies, spirit and flesh; the first three petitions concern eternity. Daily bread is bodily food, and also the eucharist, the word preached, the readings, and the hymns, needed for this pilgrimage.
Sermon 57.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Baptism blots out all sins, yet the Prayer teaches that sins follow in life; the candidates must forgive all their enemies, as God, who owes nothing, forgives them.
Sermon 57.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God tempts no one to evil, though he tests; but by hidden judgment he abandons some to the tempter; after baptism concupiscence remains, and we must fight it within, asking God not to abandon us.
Sermon 57.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · “Lead us not into temptation” and “deliver us from evil,” joined by “but,” form one petition.
Sermon 57.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Other sins can be healed through the petition for forgiveness; but the desire for revenge is a dreadful temptation, because it destroys the very means of being forgiven.
Sermon 57.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Of all the petitions Christ singled out only the one about forgiving others for comment, because if it is lost there is no remedy for our many daily faults.
Sermon 57.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Pray for victory over your own anger, which God wants more than you want rain; seek first his kingdom, and trust the God who loves us so much that he gave his Son for creatures of dust.
Sermon 58.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Having recited the Creed, the candidates receive the Lord’s Prayer, dictated by Christ, their advocate and judge; they will recite it in eight days and the Creed again on the Saturday of their baptism.
Sermon 58.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Emperor and beggar, slave and master all say “Our Father,” and so are brothers; masters should not disdain slaves whom Christ calls brothers.
Sermon 58.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God’s name is hallowed when we are made holy; praying for his kingdom to come is asking to be made good, so that it comes to us and not only to others.
Sermon 58.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · “Your will be done” asks that we obey as the angels do, that our flesh agree with our spirit, and that unbelievers, the earth, become heaven like the Church.
Sermon 58.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Daily bread means all bodily necessities, the eucharist received by the faithful, from whose altar we pray not to be separated, and the word of God broken daily.
Sermon 58.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · No one lives without sin; even the apostles, the rams of the flock, were taught to ask forgiveness; sins are forgiven once in baptism and daily through the Lord’s Prayer.
Sermon 58.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The petition is a binding pact; candidates and faithful alike must forgive from the heart in these holy days, lest Christ, the Sun of justice, set on their anger.
Sermon 58.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Anger is the lust for revenge; nursed, it becomes hatred, the beam in the eye, and whoever hates is a murderer; we must cleanse our hearts and forgive, as God, whom we daily offend, forgives us.
Sermon 58.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Temptation conceives sin only by our consent; we must refuse concupiscence its embrace, for we leave behind what we sin for and carry the sin itself into death.
Sermon 58.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Small daily sins must be pumped out like bilge water by prayer with two wings, forgiving and giving; deliverance from evil comes by turning from evil and doing good.
Sermon 58.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The first three petitions concern eternity, the last four this life; the Lord’s Prayer is said daily at the altar, so the newly baptized will learn it by hearing it.
Sermon 59.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · After the Creed, short in words and great in meaning, the candidates receive the Lord’s Prayer, given by Christ to the apostles and handed on to us.
Sermon 59.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Under one heavenly Father all Christians, master and slave, rich and poor, are brothers, heirs of a Father who does not die but remains for us to come to him.
Sermon 59.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Asking that God’s ever-holy name be hallowed means asking to be made holy by it, as in baptism, and to remain so.
Sermon 59.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · We pray for the kingdom to come so that we may be among the saints to whom it comes.
Sermon 59.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · “Your will be done” asks that we obey God in love as the angels do, and that our flesh agree with our soul in keeping his commands.
Sermon 59.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Daily bread is bodily food, the eucharist, and the word preached, all needed only in this life; daily sins are washed away by the Lord’s Prayer, provided we forgive those who ask our pardon.
Sermon 59.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Of the seven petitions, three concern eternal life and four the present life, where temptation and evil require us to pray.
Sermon 61.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ urges prayer: we are evil, yet we have a good Father who gives good things to those who ask.
Sermon 61.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Giving money to gain justice is good trading; since justice comes only from God, become his beggar, for he who urges us to ask will not refuse.
Sermon 61.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The unjust judge and the friend at midnight show by contrast how much more God, who urges us to pray, will give; he delays to enlarge our desire; we ask of him justice, and must hunger for it to be filled.
Sermon 67.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The sermon ends with Augustine’s customary prayer turning to the Lord.
Sermon 75.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The boat is the Church, tossed by the devil’s temptations; we must stay in it and pray, for Christ will bring it to rest.
Sermon 77.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Canaanite woman, one of the Gentile “other sheep,” persevered in asking and knocking.
Sermon 80.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ rebuked even the apostles for unbelief, yet they knew to ask him, “Lord, increase our faith.”
Sermon 80.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God knows what we need, yet he bids us ask, seek, and knock, and pray always; we must trust him, like a patient with a doctor, when he does not give what we ask.
Sermon 80.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · If we pray to cast out another’s demon, much more should we pray to be freed from our own vices, as the sick beg a doctor for healing.
Sermon 80.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Like the apostles and Peter on the water, we must rely on God and call on him when we totter.
Sermon 80.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Eternal goods are to be sought with constant desire, which is itself prayer; temporal goods should be asked for with moderation, trusting the Father’s judgment.
Sermon 83.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Everyone is God’s debtor and has others as debtors; the two works of mercy, forgiving and giving, are the rule God will apply to us.
Sermon 83.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · In the Lord’s Prayer we ask God to forgive all our debts as we forgive our debtors, binding ourselves to forgive all.
Sermon 90.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Following Christ and Stephen, who prayed for their killers, Christians should pray not for their enemies’ death but for the death of their enmity, since God hates the fault, not the nature he made.
Sermon 93.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The wise virgins’ “perhaps there will not be enough” expresses humility: even a good conscience, still needing daily forgiveness, trembles before God’s judgment.
Sermon 105.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Through the parable of the friend at midnight, Christ urges us to ask persistently, for he wants to give more than we want to receive.
Sermon 105.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · When Scripture is obscure, the believer must knock in prayer to God, who delays so that we may desire more; the three loaves are the understanding of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, food that never runs out.
Sermon 110.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God has paid most of what he promised, so we can trust him for the kingdom; the barren should repent and the bent, looking only at earthly happiness, should call on God to raise them as Christ raised the woman.
Sermon 114.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · In the Lord’s Prayer we bind ourselves to forgive as we ask to be forgiven, a condition set by the heavenly lawyer who will judge us; to pray it without forgiving is to lie to God.
Sermon 115.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The parable of the unjust judge teaches persistent prayer, which springs from faith and in turn strengthens faith; the faith Christ asked whether he would find on earth is perfect faith, which even the apostles lacked.
Sermon 115.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Pharisee in the temple asked God for nothing but praised himself and despised the tax collector, who stood far off, beat his breast, and asked for mercy, and so went home justified, for the humble are exalted.
Sermon 123.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Every rich person is God’s beggar, asking daily for bread; Christ asks the rich to give him, in the poor, from what he gave them, promising to repay heavenly and eternal things.
Sermon 135.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The healed man’s saying “God does not hear sinners” was mistaken, as the justified tax collector shows; the man still needed his heart’s eyes opened, which happened when he believed in the Son of God.
Sermon 135.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · No one is without sin: the Old Testament priests offered first for their own sins, Augustine himself is a sinner, and even the apostles were taught to pray daily, “Forgive us our debts.”
Sermon 135.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Even after the resurrection and Pentecost the apostles were not without sin, as John, the greatest of them, confesses in 1 John 1:8–9; so all must keep praying.
Sermon 136.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The healed man erred in thinking Christ only a prophet and in saying that God does not hear sinners, as the tax collector shows; his heart was washed when he believed in the Son of God.
Sermon 145.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine sets out the question how Christ could say “Until now you have asked nothing in my name” to disciples who had cast out demons in his name.
Sermon 145.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The disciples, still prone to desire, asked for small things like power over demons, which is “nothing” compared with God’s promise; we must ask in Christ’s name for what makes joy full, the vision of the Father in Christ.
Sermon 149.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ and Stephen loved their enemies; the old command to hate one’s enemy may be read as hatred of the devil, while human enemies, who may yet be converted, are to be loved and prayed for.
Sermon 149.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Stephen’s prayer may have won Saul’s conversion; Paul commanded prayer for persecuting kings, and those prayers have been answered now that rulers defend the Church.
Sermon 150.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Since life or punishment follows death, as the rich man in purple learned, Christians should say not “Let us eat and drink” but “Let us fast, pray, and give alms, for tomorrow we die”; giving matters more than fasting.
Sermon 152.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Continuing the previous sermon on Romans 7, Augustine takes up Rom 7:25–8:4 and asks for prayer, since only God gives understanding from within.
Sermon 152.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Serving the law of sin with the flesh means only feeling desires without consenting; we pray to be free even of the desires, but in this life we can only refuse consent.
Sermon 153.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The commandment not to desire was meant for life, a sweeter life than the pleasures of desire; but only God gives the delight that makes his law sweet, so the sick soul must pray to be healed.
Sermon 155.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Law's righteousness is fulfilled now in those who, helped by grace, refuse the flesh's desires; Baptism blotted out past sins, and daily slips are forgiven through the Lord's Prayer.
Sermon 156.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The cry “Abba, Father” comes from the heart, and its two words, Hebrew and Greek, show Christ the cornerstone joining Jews and Gentiles in one.
Sermon 159.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Our justification in this life is imperfect, but the martyrs attained perfection; so at the altar the Church prays for the other departed but not for the martyrs, whose prayers we seek.
Sermon 159.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Every good we have toward righteousness comes from God, the Father of lights; we should thank him for what we have and ask him for the rest, for his giving is never exhausted.
Sermon 161.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Fear of death only postpones it, but love of God, who is life, leads to never dying; the sinner should groan to God to rebuild the ruined temple within.
Sermon 163.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The triumphant cry over death belongs to the resurrection; until then the humble fighter must pray “Forgive us our debts” and confess truthfully that he is not without sin.
Sermon 163.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · In the struggle against the flesh the believer must call on God continually and confess “Wretched man that I am,” and will be answered that deliverance comes by God's grace through Christ.
Sermon 165.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Paul both asks the Ephesians not to lose heart, appealing to their will, and kneels to pray that God give it, showing that free choice is real but insufficient without God's help.
Sermon 165.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · What Paul asks of the Ephesians, not to lose heart, he asks of God for them, to be strengthened by the Spirit; God gives, but the will must open to receive.
Sermon 168.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Against the Pelagian objection that our faith and prayer come first and earn the rest, Augustine answers that no one gives God anything first: faith itself is received, and we give God only from his own gifts.
Sermon 168.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Faith is given even to unbelievers through the prayers of the faithful, as Stephen prayed for those stoning him; the churches glorified God, not Paul, for Saul's conversion.
Sermon 168.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Believers pray for unbelieving friends and spouses to be given faith, which shows that faith is God's gift and no one may boast except in the Lord.
Sermon 169.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Struck down and healed, Paul rejected his own righteousness for God's; Israel stumbled over Christ, and Paul prays for their conversion, which itself needs God's help, since they had zeal without knowledge.
Sermon 170.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Since no one alive can fulfil “You shall not desire,” the Psalmist asks to be heard in God's righteousness, not his own, and not to be judged, for no one living is justified in God's sight, though one may be in men's.
Sermon 172.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Funerals and monuments console the living, but the Church's prayers, the eucharistic sacrifice, and alms help the faithful dead, though only those who lived so as to be helped; no new merit is gained after death.
Sermon 172.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Mourners may weep with healable grief and should be comforted by others; burial is a good work praised in Scripture, but offerings, prayers, and alms that help the dead matter much more.
Sermon 175.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ prayed for his killers and was heard, making his blood their medicine; at Pentecost the apostles' speech in all languages, a sign of the Church's unity, humbled the hearers from mountains into valleys that receive grace.
Sermon 181.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The whole Church, apostles included, prays daily “Forgive us our debts,” and Christ explains the debts as sins; whoever will not say it is outside the Church even if present in body.
Sermon 181.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Lord's Prayer belongs to baptized sons, and the whole Church prays it; the Church is made without spot or wrinkle by confession and forgiveness here, stretched like cloth on the fuller's frame of the cross, and is presented spotless in heaven.
Sermon 181.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Confession, humility, prayer, and tears heal the daily sins we cannot avoid, though a good Christian does not commit the deadly sins; God forgives our debts on the fixed condition that we forgive others.
Sermon 182.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Against the Manichaean claim that the soul is part of God, Augustine argues that the soul errs and sins, which the divine nature cannot do; so we pray “Deliver us from evil,” that is, from our evil selves.
Sermon 183.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Believers should confess Christ come in the flesh by faith and good life, both received from and to be perfected by him, and the sermon closes with the full prayer of thanksgiving.
Sermon 205.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · During Lent Christians should fast, abstain even from marital relations, give alms, pray more, and not replace ordinary luxuries with refined ones under the name of abstinence.
Sermon 205.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The true fast is from quarrels; forgiveness and giving are the two wings of prayer.
Sermon 206.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Lent signifies the present life as the time of humility, to be followed by the joy of Easter; Christians should be more fervent in prayer, fasting, and alms.
Sermon 206.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Alms and fasting are the wings of prayer; the two kinds of alms are giving to the poor and forgiving offenses, and no one is too poor for the second.
Sermon 206.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · True fasting is free of quarrels and oppression; restraint in lawful things guards against unlawful ones, and humility and love give prayer its wings.
Sermon 207.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Prayer supported by alms and fasting must be free of greed and hatred; it gives alms by praying for enemies and fasts perpetually from anger.
Sermon 208.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Lenten fasting should be without harshness or new luxuries, married people should abstain for prayer, alms should increase, and above all anger should be forgiven before Easter.
Sermon 209.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · What is saved by fasting should go to the poor, and those who cannot fast should give more, so that their alms may pray for them.
Sermon 210.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · In this present night, exiled from Christ and beset by the devil, the roaring lion, believers must mourn, fast, and pray.
Sermon 210.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · This life is the “little while” of sorrow and labor before the joy no one can take away; meanwhile we fast and pray in hope, with the Spirit as pledge.
Sermon 210.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine urges daily fasting, generous alms, fervent prayer, and marital continence throughout Lent, following the forty-day fasts of Moses, Elijah, and Christ.
Sermon 211.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Lent calls for reconciliation; the Lord's Prayer binds us to forgive as we hope to be forgiven, and anger must not be allowed to grow into hatred.
Sermon 211.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Whoever refuses to forgive cannot honestly say the Lord's Prayer, since he must either omit “forgive us” or say “as we forgive” falsely.
Sermon 211.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · One who has been wronged should not falsely ask pardon, but should be ready to forgive from the heart and pray that the offender may seek pardon.
Sermon 211.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine asks that all be reconciled before Easter, following Christ who sinned against no one, and that prayers for vengeance become prayers for the enemy's conversion.
Sermon 213.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The forgiveness of sins in the Church is given in baptism, pictured by the Red Sea in which the pursuing Egyptians drowned, and daily through the Lord's Prayer.
Sermon 217.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ prays for us as man and grants what he asks as God; he refers all to the Father, the source from which he, also a source, is born.
Sermon 219.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Easter Vigil, mother of all vigils, keeps the whole world awake, believers in joy and unbelievers in envy or shame; Christians should watch and pray.
Sermon 254.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Sadness over lost money or prayer for an enemy’s death is dung in the wrong place; sadness over sin and mortal temptation is fruitful.
Sermon 254.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The fifty days of Alleluia signify the endless praise of God in his heavenly house; it must be praised by life as well as by tongue.
Sermon 255.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Alleluia means “Praise God”; now it is the traveler’s song on the hard road, and in the homeland it will be the only activity left.
Sermon 256.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Alleluia must be sung with life as well as voice; here we sing it anxiously, praying daily for forgiveness and deliverance from evil, the evil being ourselves, the law of sin in our members.
Sermon 257.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Alleluia, “Praise the Lord,” must be sung with the heart, for the voice that reaches God is the affection of the inner man.
Sermon 261.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · After baptism God gives daily remedies, the Lord’s Prayer and almsgiving, by which the judge will separate right from left; minor sins overwhelm by their number, as raindrops fill rivers.
Sermon 273.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Asked to remember a man in prayer, Fructuosus answered that he must pray for the Catholic Church from east to west, meaning: do not leave the Church for which I pray.
Sermon 277.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The miracle that preserved Vincent’s body added nothing to his glory but gave the Church a memorial for prayer, as God fed Elijah through a widow for her blessing rather than his need.
Sermon 278.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Lord’s Prayer petition for forgiveness is the antidote against all sins, of which there are two kinds, against God and against neighbor, matching the two great commandments.
Sermon 278.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Excess even in permitted things offends God, whose temple we are; the remedy he gives is to forgive others, so that he will forgive us.
Sermon 278.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · “Forgive us as we forgive” is like the bucket that bails a leaking ship: daily sins seep in through our frailty, and we must keep bailing until we reach the homeland.
Sermon 278.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Hatred corrupts the heart as vinegar spoils a wine jar; harm no one, and for unavoidable excess forgive others quickly so that the Father may forgive you.
Sermon 284.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Church prays for the other dead but not for the martyrs, who fought to the point of blood; Christ, tempted first by allurements and then by cruelty, taught them to conquer both.
Sermon 285.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The martyrs are not prayed for but are our advocates in Christ, the one advocate, just as Peter is a shepherd only in the body of Christ, the one shepherd whose sheep he feeds.
Sermon 286.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God does not heal everyone through the martyrs but promises immortality to all who imitate them; like a physician or a father who scourges, he refuses some requests for our good.
Sermon 290.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Zechariah spoke in despair, Mary in inquiry; her grace and the incarnation are pure gift, and her words ‘he has filled the hungry and sent the rich away empty’ are illustrated by the Pharisee and the tax collector.
Sermon 291.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Gabriel came to Zechariah, the father, for John, and to Mary, not Joseph, for Christ; Zechariah had not prayed for a son, since he did not believe the promise, but for the people awaiting the Christ whom John would announce.
Sermon 297.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Death is naturally bitter, which is why martyrs, who chose it rather than deny Christ, are great and are not prayed for but pray for the Church; Peter did not want to die but preferred to follow Christ, and the apostles trod down the thorns for the sheep.
Sermon 297.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Good days are not found in this life; we make our days bad, since most evils come from people; pray to be delivered from the evil man, oneself, for then no other evil man can harm you.
Sermon 311.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God gives earthly goods to the wicked too so that the good will not prize them; riches given in answer to prayer often make a person worse, and God, as a Father, urges us to ask him for better things, for himself.
Sermon 315.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · While Stephen claimed his reward, Saul, named after King Saul the persecutor of David, added to his own debt by guarding the stoners' clothes; later, as Paul, “the little one”, he became a preacher, while Stephen stood to pray for himself and knelt to pray for his enemies.
Sermon 316.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Stephen imitated Christ's two prayers on the cross, commending his spirit to Jesus as Mediator and asking forgiveness for his killers, perhaps because he himself had been among those forgiven at Pentecost for killing Christ; he stood for himself and knelt for the wicked.
Sermon 316.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Stephen's prayer was already being answered for Saul while he raged: the persecution scattered the believers like torches into a forest, and on the road Christ called the wolf Saul to become a sheep and then a shepherd.
Sermon 319.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Stephen knelt to pray for his killers because praying for the wicked is harder, following Christ's example on the cross.
Sermon 319.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Stephen's prayers, since the discovery of his body, obtain much but not everything, and work in Christ's name.
Sermon 323.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The curse that struck the Cappadocian family warns children to obey and parents to fear anger, since the mother was heard and punished all the more.
Sermon 323.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The sermon is interrupted by the cure of the sister at Stephen's shrine, and Augustine turns the people's joy to thanksgiving.
Sermon 332.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The love to lay down one's life is itself God's gift, received by the martyrs and to be asked for by us, also through the martyrs' prayers.
Sermon 333.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · A closing prayer of thanks for grace given without prior merit, asking God to keep and increase his gifts.
Sermon 340.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · On his ordination anniversary Augustine calls his people his burden, carried with Christ's help; for them he is a bishop, with them a Christian, and he lists the many tasks of the office.
Sermon 340.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Bishop and people must pray for each other, as Paul asked, so that the episcopate may profit both.
Sermon 342.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The evening sacrifice of the psalm is the cross: the Word through whom we were created became flesh, and by his blood redeemed us.
Sermon 343.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Job, stripped of everything, still had God and answered his wife's temptation; God, unlike spectators at the games, helps those who fight when they call on him.
Sermon 349.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · As the blind man cried out to Christ despite the crowd, Christians should long for Christ the light and cry out by good lives, overcoming even fellow Christians who discourage them.
Sermon 351.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Repentance is necessary because God resists the proud and draws near to the humble, as the tax collector shows; the law was given to reveal sin and lead us to seek grace through Christ.
Sermon 351.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Everyone, bishops included, beats his breast and prays “Forgive us our debts” for daily sins; the Christian life is a struggle in which the old and new man coexist, and humility and confession defeat the enemy.
Sermon 352.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine urges candidates for baptism to cross the Red Sea of baptism without fear of past sins, trusting the God who freed them to help them through the desert against bitterness and Amalek, by prayer and the cross.
Sermon 352.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The second, daily repentance is shown in the Lord's Prayer, “Forgive us as we forgive”; we cannot skip that clause or escape God the creditor, so we must forgive, which costs nothing and enlarges love.
Sermon 354.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Paul's thorn in the flesh was not removed because God heard him for his health, not his wish; eternal goods should be asked confidently, temporal ones with restraint, leaving the choice to God the physician.
Sermon 355.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine promises to report after Epiphany on his clergy's compliance and on the settlement of Januarius's estate, and asks for prayers in his old age and weakness.
Sermon 357.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Peace, easier to have than to praise, should be loved even towards its enemies, who are to be pitied like the blind; unlike earthly property, peace grows the more people share it.
Sermon 357.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Catholics should not quarrel with the Donatists or retaliate for insults to the Church and its bishops, but pray for them and, as Isaiah commands, call them brothers, since both say “Our Father.”
Sermon 357.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The faithful should support the cause of unity with the solemn fasts after Pentecost, almsgiving, and hospitality to the bishops arriving for the conference, storing their treasure in heaven.
Sermon 358.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine asks prayers for unity with the Donatists, who by refusing to be conquered by truth are conquered by error; to lose to the truth would give them the whole Church instead of a part.
Sermon 358.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Before the Conference of Carthage, Augustine says the Catholics welcome debate on the Church, whose cause does not depend on Caecilian, asks the people to stay away from the conference site and obey the tribune's edict, and to support the bishops by prayer, fasting, and alms.
Sermon 361.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine sums up his arguments for the resurrection from nature, from God's omnipotence, and from Christ's resurrection in the form of a servant, and turns the mockers' slogan into “Let us fast and pray, for tomorrow we shall die.”
Sermon 361.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Jonah's prophecy that Nineveh would be overthrown came true spiritually: the sinful city was overturned when its people repented in sackcloth and fasting.
Sermon 361.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The building of Noah's ark figures the present building of the Church by Christ; those who ignore it now are more culpable, and Christians should fast and pray so as to die secure, awaiting the Lord.
Sermon 362.29Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · In heaven there will be no sleep, and the saints' whole activity will be Amen and Alleluia, said not with passing sounds but with insatiable delight in the truth seen face to face.
Sermon 362.31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The life to come will be delightful contemplation: freed from labor and need, the saints will be still, see God as he is, and praise him for ever; the sermon ends with a prayer.
Sermon 365.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Praise of God must come from a heart of love, not the mouth alone; a sinner without love is a whitewashed tomb, and the dead do not praise God; the faithful bless the Lord who gave them understanding.
Sermon 376.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine warns the newly baptized against drunken or superstitious fellow Christians who recommend enchanters, healers, and astrologers, and urges forgiveness and almsgiving.
Sermon 382.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · On St Stephen's day: like Joshua helped by Moses' prayer, the preacher speaks helped by the people's prayers; Christ commands love of enemies here and promises the reward of sonship hereafter.
Sermon 382.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ on the cross prayed for his persecutors, foreseeing that many would become friends; his blood, shed in their madness, became their medicine when they believed.
Sermon 382.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Stephen, a man and deacon like any Christian, fulfilled the command to love enemies by praying for those who stoned him.
Sermon 382.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Saul, who kept the garments of Stephen's killers, was struck down on the road to Damascus and raised up as Paul because Stephen had prayed for his persecutors.
Sermon 382.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · To pray for an enemy's death is to make oneself judge and God the executioner; God, who spared us when we were his enemies, teaches us to pray for our enemies as Christ did on the cross.
Sermon 383.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · On the anniversary of his episcopal ordination the bishop reviews the burden of his office, past and future: love prevents sins, humility blots out those committed, and he must forgive as he asks to be forgiven.
Sermon 383.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The bishop asks forgiveness of those he may have hurt through haste, harshness, or suspicion in his many duties, like a hen treading on her chicks, and asks their prayers for the rest of his ministry.
Sermon 386.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Love must reach even enemies; in the Lord's Prayer Christ, our advocate and judge, has drafted our plea, which depends on forgiving those who ask our pardon, and we should pray even for those who do not ask.
Sermon 386.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ on the cross prayed aloud for those who mocked and killed him, to give us an example; Stephen, his servant, did the same, standing for himself but kneeling for his enemies.
Sermon 388.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Alms blot out past sins only for those who change their lives; daily light sins are forgiven through the Lord's Prayer, which even the apostles needed, but alms do not buy license for grave sins, which would perish together with the sinner.
Sermon 389.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The soul needs heavenly bread, Christ himself; to obtain it one must knock, and knocking is done with the hands: we ask by praying, seek by inquiring, and knock by giving alms.
Acts of the Debate with Fortunatus the Manichaean 3Augustine of Hippo · 28–29 August 392 · Augustine says that as a Hearer he saw nothing shameful at Manichaean prayer and insists on discussing faith; Fortunatus states the Manichaean profession about God and the Savior.
Homily on 1 Cor, 19.2John Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom explains Paul's rules on temporary abstinence for prayer and on marriage for those who burn, the Lord's command against separation (with remaining unmarried or reconciliation), and the believer's duty to stay with a willing unbelieving spouse.
Homily 1.3 on 1 ThessaloniansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · The joy of the Spirit in affliction made the Thessalonians examples to others; Chrysostom warns against spiritual sleep and teaches that the prayers of the saints help only those who also strive.
Homily 1.4 on 1 ThessaloniansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Prayers help only those who also do their part: Scripture shows intercession succeeding for the righteous and failing for the obstinate, so we should seek the saints’ prayers and also practise virtue.
Homily 10.2 on 1 ThessaloniansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Rulers must correct the disorderly gently; believers must repay evil with good, rejoice, pray and give thanks always; Chrysostom attacks the love of money and the excuse that one hoards for one’s children, citing Jacob and Abraham.
Homily 11.1 on 1 ThessaloniansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · The Spirit’s gift is a lamp in the night of this world, quenched by an unclean life, by anger and by lack of almsgiving; prophecies must be tested, not despised; Paul prays for their sanctification, asks for prayer, and adjures them, while Chrysostom laments that adjurations by Christ are now ignored.
Homily 6.1 on 1 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom explains why Paul commands prayer and thanksgiving for all people, including pagan rulers, in the church’s daily worship, and why thanksgiving binds Christians to their neighbors.
Homily 6.2 on 1 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom forbids Christians to pray against their enemies or brothers, since one who asks God not to forgive another condemns himself, and holds up Stephen’s prayer for his killers.
Homily 6.3 on 1 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom shows that the Lord’s Prayer already includes prayer for unbelievers, urges imitation of God who feeds even blasphemers, and explains why he keeps repeating the command to pray for enemies.
Homily 7.1 on 1 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom distinguishes three kinds of war (with barbarians, with one another, and within oneself) and explains that Paul’s “peaceful life in all godliness” means the inner peace of a godly life in doctrine and conduct.
Homily 7.2 on 1 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom urges prayer for pagans and heretics because God wills all to be saved, and argues that Christ, the “one mediator,” must share both the divine and the human nature, while “one God” excludes idols, not the Son.
Homily 8.1 on 1 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom reconciles Christ’s command to pray in secret with Paul’s “pray in every place,” explains “holy hands without anger or doubting,” and rebukes women who come to pray adorned with gold and finery.
Homily 14.3 on 1 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom urges giving alms with one's own hand rather than through church officials, and praises visiting the monasteries, “houses of mourning”, where monks rise before dawn to sing.
Homily 14.4 on 1 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom describes the monks' day of night prayer, psalms, Scripture reading, work, fasting, and simple meals, free of the cares of the world.
Homily 2.2 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Paul names his near-fatal affliction in Asia, explains the ‘sentence of death’ as an expectation God did not allow to be fulfilled, and teaches that deliverance from danger is a daily proof of the resurrection and a fruit of the Corinthians’ prayers.
Homily 2.4 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Prayer for others moves God, who shows mercy to those made worthy of it and heeds a united multitude when it has virtue, so Christians should pray and give thanks for one another.
Homily 2.5 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Christians should give thanks for common blessings and for others’ virtue, and the church’s prayer for the catechumens, led by the deacon, teaches every believer to pray that God will open their inner ears and teach them himself.
Homily 2.6 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · The litany asks God to open the catechumens’ hearts and reveal the gospel of righteousness, and to give them a godly mind, sober reasoning, and a virtuous life grounded in constant attention to God’s law.
Homily 2.7 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · The petitions for the catechumens form a chain of godly mind, meditation, and obedience; they ask deliverance from the devil, the slanderer, worthiness for baptism, the washing of regeneration, and blessings on their households.
Homily 2.8 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · The last petitions of the litany ask the angel of peace and a Christian end for the catechumens, who then receive the blessing; Chrysostom rebukes the faithful who chatter during these prayers and during their own.
Homily 5.1 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Paul’s distress at Troas when he did not find Titus shows how much a brother’s presence matters; God leads the apostles in triumph and spreads through them the fragrance of Christ, which saves some and condemns others; true preachers ascribe everything to God and live before his eye, not men’s.
Homily 5.4 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Prayer is a sacrifice offered like Abraham’s, alone and with contrite heart; to pray against one’s enemies contradicts the very posture of a suppliant, and the only enemy to pray against is the devil.
Homily 5.5 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Unlike the three youths and Joseph, who uttered no curses against their oppressors, Christians who pray for harm to their enemies speak absurd and devilish words; they should pray for those who wrong them, since Christ’s sacrifice was offered for enemies.
Homily 18.1 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom explains Paul's commendation of Titus and the two brothers sent with him for the collection, and his care to avoid any suspicion over money (2 Cor 8:16–24); from 'in the face of the churches' he shows how much the people share with the priest in ordination, prayer and the Eucharist, and urges that good counsel be accepted from anyone, as Moses accepted Jethro's.
Homily 4.4 on 2 ThessaloniansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · The Antichrist’s false signs will convict unbelievers who rejected Christ; Elijah will come to strengthen the faithful; God chose the Thessalonians for salvation through sanctification and faith; unwritten tradition is as trustworthy as letters; Paul asks prayer, and Chrysostom begs his people to pray for their bishop, with whom they share the same table, baptism and Spirit.
Homily 5.1 on 2 ThessaloniansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · God, who is faithful, will guard the Thessalonians if they also do their part; Paul prays that the Lord direct their hearts to God’s love and Christ’s steadfastness, and in Christ’s name commands them to keep away from idle, disorderly brothers, following his own example of working with his hands.
Homily 6.4 on 2 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Concluding Homily 6, Chrysostom teaches that hands are cleansed by righteousness, not water, and that offerings and prayers must be clean of greed; he urges the habit of almsgiving, by which God sells eternal life for small things, and denies that stolen goods ever become the robber's own.
Homily 1.5 on ColossiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom argues that the poor man's table spares the host anxiety, earns God's repayment, and ends in hymns and thanksgiving, while the rich banquet with its music and harlots ends in drunkenness and shame.
Homily 3.4 on ColossiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom shows how Christ reconciled angels and men, says each believer has a guardian angel, and explains the bishop's repeated greeting “Peace to all” as Christ's own gift, which those who quarrel make an empty form.
Homily 8.5 on ColossiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · This section ends Homily 8 (thanksgiving in suffering, against amulets and charms for sick children, and consolation for bereaved parents from Abraham, Jacob, David, and others) and contains all of Homily 9 (Col 3:16–17: lay people should read the Scriptures, teach their children psalms rather than worldly songs, and do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus).
Homily 10.2 on ColossiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom expounds Col 3:22–4:2: slaves are to serve sincerely, fearing God who sees, and will be rewarded by him; masters must give what is just and equal; and all are to persevere in prayer with thanksgiving for every kind of benefit, even Gehenna and affliction.
Homily 10.3 on ColossiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom quotes a holy man's prayer of thanksgiving for all God's benefits, then expounds Col 4:3–4: Paul in chains asks not for release but for boldness, and his bonds, far from hindering the gospel, made it spread.
Homily 12.1 on ColossiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Opening Homily 12, Chrysostom runs through Col 4:12–18: Epaphras's striving in prayer for the Colossians, Luke and Demas, Nymphas's house church, the exchange of letters with Laodicea, the charge to Archippus, and Paul's signature and bonds.
Homily 20.7 on EphesiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom gives a model speech for a husband to his young bride, urges common prayer, marriage to a poorer rather than a richer wife, and the sharing of all property; the section ends with the opening text of the next homily (Eph 6:1–3).
Homily 1.2 on PhilemonJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom ends Homily 1 by showing that sins against God are far greater than sins against men, since we fear and honour men more than God, and urges forgiveness, almsgiving, humility, and confession as easy ways to have our own sins forgiven.
Homily 2.1 on PhilemonJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · This section contains Homily 2 (Phlm 4–16: Paul's tactful praise of Philemon, his plea for Onesimus as his child and heart, God's use of the flight, and a sermon on true humility) and the exposition of Homily 3 (Phlm 17–25: Paul's offer to repay, his confidence in Philemon, and the closing greetings).
Homily 3.4 on PhilippiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · We should weep, with restraint, not for the dead as such but for those who die in sin or unbaptized, and help the faithful departed by prayer, alms, and remembrance at the Eucharist, as Job provided for his children by sacrifice.
Homily 14.1 on PhilippiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Christian joy is not the world's laughter but springs from mourning for sin and from suffering for Christ; Paul urges gentleness toward the wicked, freedom from anxiety because the Lord is near, prayer with thanksgiving for everything, and trust in God's peace.
Homily 15.4 on PhilippiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Paul prays that God will supply the Philippians' needs, not make them rich, and sends greetings, including from Caesar's household; Chrysostom notes that the shared persecution of the early church bound believers in love.
Section 1John Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom opens his homily on 1 Tim 5:9 by linking it to his earlier sermon on the dead and teaching that widowhood is not a misfortune but a dignity, since the widow has Christ as companion.
Section 2John Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom praises the widow's power of intercession with God and distinguishes poor widows supported by the church, who are helped without conditions, from the enrolled order of widows to which Paul's age limit applies.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 1.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine explains the “sin unto death” of 1 John 5:16 as a Christian’s envious attack on the brotherhood after receiving grace, connects it with the sin against the Holy Spirit and with Judas’s despair, and reads the martyrs’ cry for vengeance as a prayer for the overthrow of sin’s kingdom.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 2.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine explains praying in the inner chamber of the heart with the door of the senses shut, rejects many words in prayer, and argues that prayer serves not to inform God but to turn and cleanse the heart.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 2.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine introduces the Lord’s Prayer and explains its opening address: Israel knew God as Lord, but Christians by grace call him “Our Father,” which stirs love, confidence, reverence, and brotherhood between rich and poor.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 2.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine explains “who are in heaven” as God dwelling in the righteous, explains why Christians face east to pray, and reads “hallowed be your name” as a prayer that God’s name be held holy among the nations.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 2.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine explains “your kingdom come” as the manifestation of God’s reign at the judgment, and gives several readings of “your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth”: angels and men, righteous and sinners, spirit and flesh, Christ and the church.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 2.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine weighs three meanings of “daily bread” (bodily needs, the Eucharist, the spiritual food of God’s precepts), prefers the spiritual, and allows all three to be taken together.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 2.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine explains the debts of the fifth petition as sins, discusses forgiving money debts, and concludes that all sins against us must be forgiven if we wish to be forgiven.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 2.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine explains the sixth petition as a prayer not to be led into temptation, not to escape all testing, answers the heretics’ objections from God’s testing and from Job, and explains the seventh petition as deliverance from the evil we are already in.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 2.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine distinguishes the first three petitions, which begin in this life but last forever, from the last four, which belong only to this temporal life.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 2.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine matches the seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer to the seven gifts and beatitudes, and stresses the petition for forgiveness as a pact with God.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 2.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine explains asking, seeking, and knocking as prayer for strength, search for truth, and entry into possession, and argues from human fathers to God’s readiness to give good things.
Letter 1.224Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Isidore, recovering against his hope of death, asks a monk's prayers.
Letter 1.386Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Prayer is made effective by good deeds, as David, Hezekiah and the widows of Joppa show; a second letter spells out that we receive from God as we act toward others.
Letter 1.452Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Hezekiah's prayer for peace was not weakness; by prayer he won victory through an angel.
Letter 1.461Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · A dedicated woman who has taken to jewels and cosmetics is reminded of her vow; a second letter encourages an officer sent into a dangerous court posting.
Letter 2.104Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Early success breeds overreaching, so one should keep a human measure in success and failure; the meanings of Scripture are won only by toil and prayer.
Letter 2.134Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · One should pray for what is fitting, as Moses and Paul learned when their requests were refused.
Letter 2.281Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · The Lord's Prayer asks only for heavenly things; its "daily" (epiousios) bread is above all the Word who nourishes the soul, or else bread asked for with philosophical contentment.
Letter 3.157Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Repentance is no licence to sin: death may come first, healing is long and laborious, and scars remain.
Letter 3.171Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · In prayer we should ask for what God knows is good for us; and (Letter 3.172) external goods are good or bad according to their use.
Letter 3.245Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Isidore laments the decline of Pelusium from the time of Bishop Ammonius to that of Eusebius, who admits the unworthy to the altar.
Letter 3.270Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Isidore urges a bishop to pray rather than lament for Pelusium, ruined under Eusebius, since letters to Eusebius have achieved nothing.
Letter 3.319Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Eusebius punishes before proof; (3.320) "Do not be very righteous" (Eccl 7:16) teaches mercy beyond justice and the mean of virtue; (3.321) each virtue is a mean; (3.322) seek virtue, not wealth; (3.323) Isidore turns to prayer for Zosimus.
Letter 3.366Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Isidore prays for the wayward clergy's conversion, wishing like Moses and Paul for the salvation of others more than his own reward.
Letter 3.377Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · True victory is over one's own passions; and (Letter 3.378) Isidore asks prayers for a friend in great trouble.
Letter 4.2Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · The prayer that God nail down one's flesh with fear fits those who discipline the body, not a glutton like Zosimus.
Letter 4.3Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Asking God to nail down one's flesh means asking that it be put to death toward pleasure, so a man who feasts at others' tables should not pray it.
Letter 4.4Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · A man who feeds his passions cannot sincerely pray for his flesh to be nailed down; such a prayer tries to deceive God.
Letter 4.24Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Each petition of the Lord's Prayer can be prayed honestly only by the baptized who live accordingly; on the lips of the dissolute it is mockery.
Letter 4.119Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Two letters: Peter's call to honour wives as the weaker vessel means abstaining from intercourse at times, as the law and Paul also teach; the one who insulted another must himself heal the wound by making amends.
Letter 4.138Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Hope of future reward and prayer guard the soul against despondency in tribulation.
Letter 5.2Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Isidore urges three bishops at least to pray for the incorrigible clergy Zosimus, Eustathius and Maron, since only God can rescue them.
Letter 5.66Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Success is not always good for us; we should ask God, who alone knows what is profitable, and accept what he gives.
Letter 5.103Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Since Zosimus and Maron reject rebuke, counsel and lament alike, Isidore asks a presbyter to pray for them, since only God can heal them.
Letter 5.105Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Isidore prays that four clerics may turn from wickedness and at least stop scandalizing others; a further letter tells Count Herminus not to let office shake his philosophy, since virtue alone is a robe that never wears out.
Letter 5.213Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Isidore reports to Zosimus a good man's scathing remark that he prays for a spotless life while defiling the church, and urges him to amend.
Letter 5.226Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Isidore urges a deacon to seek God's help rather than men's, explaining that Christ's command to pray not to "enter" temptation means not to be overcome by it, since falling into trials is unavoidable.
Letter 5.230Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · God's patience with Bishop Eusebius and his partisans is meant to lead them to repentance; one should pray for them rather than complain.
Letter 5.303Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · We can never repay God, so we must give him thanks with whatever we have.
Letter 5.315Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · God's help answers just requests, not those made in pretence or greed.
Letter 5.389Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Isidore's anger at three clerics has proved justified as their excesses have grown; only lament and prayer remain.
Letter 5.397Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · One should shun the wicked and seek the good; in a second, candid letter Isidore admits he has not yet learned to thank and pray from the heart for persistent enemies, and warns against disbelieving, pretending, or explaining away commands one has not fulfilled.
Letter 5.437Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Zosimus's ingrained vice comes not from his slave birth but from a corrupt upbringing that made wickedness a habit; prayer is the remedy.
Letter 5.440Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Rather than accusing Zosimus, which only provokes him, one should lament and pray for him.
Letter 5.459Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · God helps those who do their part; one who wants virtue without effort is like a would-be pupil who never goes to school.
Letter 5.476Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Isidore tells four clerics of a holy intercessor who wept over their sins and marvelled at God's patience; further letters argue, with Thucydides and Plato, that character matters more than eloquence, as fruit more than leaves, and that the bad lives of some clergy do not refute this.
Letter 5.482Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Isidore tells a bishop to lament rather than mock the wicked clergy of Pelusium, and prays for their repentance.
Against Jovinianus 1.7Jerome · 393 · Jerome expounds 1 Cor 7:1–9 and 1 Pet 3:1–7 to argue that marriage is allowed as a remedy against sexual immorality and that intercourse hinders prayer.
Against Jovinianus 1.34Jerome · 393 · Jerome answers the objection that Paul appointed married clergy: Paul's requirements were a concession to new converts, and married clergy are bound to continence.
Against Jovinianus 2.3Jerome · 393 · Jerome gathers New Testament texts showing that the baptized can be tempted, fall, and repent, against Jovinian, Montanus, and Novatian.
Against Jovinianus 2.15Jerome · 393 · Jerome traces fasting through Scripture from Adam's fast in paradise to Moses, Elijah, Daniel, John the Baptist, Christ, and Paul.
Against Jovinianus 2.30Jerome · 393 · Jerome argues from the members of the body, the difference between sins, and the two Adams that there are degrees among the righteous and among sinners.
Poem 4, lines 1–19 (IIII. ORATIO)Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · A prayer to God for a peaceful, honest, chaste and contented life, with a happy household, ending in the hope of eternal life.
Poem 10, lines 97–130Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Paulinus answers Ausonius's reproach for his three-year absence in Spain: his return should be sought by prayer to God, who rules all things through Christ, not from the Muses; and if his course displeases, God is its author.
Poem 12, lines 1–39 (XII)Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · On St Felix's feast, Paulinus, still far away, prays to the confessor of Nola for a safe journey there and for the privilege of serving at his shrine for the rest of his life.
Poem 13, lines 1–36 (XIII)Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Celebrating Felix's feast at Nola for the first time after fifteen years, Paulinus thanks him for protection on his travels, describes the crowds, and praises Nola as second only to Rome.
Poem 14, lines 96–135Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Paulinus describes the lamps and garlands at Felix's tomb and asks Felix to commend his servants to Christ, so that at the judgment they may be placed among the sheep on the right.
Poem 17, lines 89–120Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Paulinus wishes he had a dove's wings to join the singing; he foresees Niceta crossing the Adriatic in a ship whose yard makes a cross, the sailors singing hymns and the sea creatures listening.
Poem 18, lines 219–253Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · A poor peasant, whose living depended on his two oxen, finds them stolen in the night, and, despairing of human help, runs to Felix's shrine to demand them back.
Poem 18, lines 254–288Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · The peasant complains to Felix, his patron, that he let the oxen be stolen, and demands those very oxen back from him.
Poem 18, lines 289–321Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · The peasant proposes a bargain: Felix may pardon the thieves if he returns the oxen; he refuses to leave the shrine, and Felix, amused and moved by his faith, prepares to help.
Poem 18, lines 448–468Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · The peasant asks Felix to heal his eyes, damaged by weeping, so that he can see his oxen; the people laugh, but his sight is restored.
Poem 20, lines 159–189Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · The man recognizes that his punishment was a merciful warning that exposed his guilt, and begs Felix, through the Lord's power, to release his bound feet.
Poem 21, lines 1–28 (XXI)Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · For the feast of 407 Paulinus rejoices in the peace after the defeat of the Goths threatening Rome, won by the young emperor through God's power and the prayers of Peter, Paul, Felix and the martyrs.
Poem 21, lines 29–59Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · The deliverance was won by the prayers of all the saints, Felix among them; Paulinus will now sing Felix's gifts to his own household, in varied metres.
Poem 23, lines 96–128Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Paulinus tells a smaller miracle: on the eve of the feast, after the fast and the evening service, his companion Theridius stepped out of the hymn-singing into a dark portico where a lamp-rope hung.
Poem 23, lines 187–219Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Not daring to pull out the hook, Theridius calls on Felix, who hears him from his nearby tomb or from God's throne, to come as physician and remove it.
Poem 23, lines 220–248Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Theridius confesses he deserves to lose both eyes for his sins, but appeals to Christ's coming to save sinners and to his own dedication to Felix's service.
Poem 24, lines 223–258Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Jonah, imprisoned in the sea creature, was free to pray and learned that God cannot be escaped; Martinianus, carried in the skiff like Jonah, slept soundly though naked and wet in the bilge water.
Poem 26, lines 67–98Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · The barbarians are God's scourge for sin; safety lies not in arms or walls but in prayer, as Nineveh, Moses against Amalek, and Esther against Haman show.
Poem 26, lines 162–194Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Judith beheaded Holofernes, and Hezekiah's prayer over Sennacherib's threatening letter brought an angel who destroyed the Assyrian army in one night.
Poem 26, lines 195–226Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · As Isaiah interceded for Hezekiah, Felix will intercede for Nola, bearing its burdens as Christ bore our sins; saints have always prayed for sinners, as Moses for Israel and Lot for Zoar.
Poem 26, lines 227–254Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · As Elijah's prayer shut and opened heaven, Paulinus asks Felix, whose God led Israel through the desert and made the sun stand still for Joshua, to obtain victory for Rome.
Poem 26, lines 255–282Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Paulinus prays that, as Daniel tamed the lions and the three youths quenched the furnace, Felix may tame the barbarians and cool the fires of war, though his own miracles suffice as examples.
Poem 26, lines 413–429Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · As Felix turned aside a flooding river from his shrine, Paulinus asks him to turn the flood of war away from Nola.
Poem 27, lines 198–224Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Paulinus invokes Felix's kindred, the patriarchs, apostles, prophets and martyrs, believing they gather for his feast.
Poem 27, lines 477–510Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Even a dry fountain may adorn the court, like Solomon's bronze sea; the new basilica opens on a garden court, and its growth reflects the spreading glory of Christ; Paulinus asks Niceta to pray for him at the liturgy.
Poem 27, lines 572–606Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Drinking at the shrine serves the devil; the paintings with their inscriptions are meant to occupy the pilgrims and draw them from wine to the holy histories. Paulinus asks Niceta's prayers that his spiritual building be completed.
Poem 27, lines 607–647Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Paulinus asks Niceta to pray that he may follow the patriarchs' example from Genesis and Exodus, and ends with a prayer to Christ, whom no building contains, to dwell in their hearts through the saints' intercession.
Poem 28, lines 94–124Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Unable to fight the fire, the community prayed at Felix's tomb and the apostles' altar, and Paulinus held up a fragment of the true cross against the flames.
Poem 31, lines 409–440Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Rather than grieve for Celsus, one should weep for sin like David; Paulinus asks Christ to break his stony heart and become in him a fountain of living water, which satisfies and yet makes one thirst.
Poem 31, lines 605–632Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Paulinus's infant son, buried beside the martyrs at Complutum, plays with young Celsus in paradise; he asks both children to intercede for their parents and for Paulinus and Therasia.
Letters 3.5Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus calls himself a recent convert, asks Alypius's prayers and letters, sends greetings to the African churches and monasteries, and sends a loaf as a token of unity.
Letters 5.7Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus praises Sulpicius for preferring the foolishness of the cross to worldly wisdom, asks his prayers, and describes his own life of silent retirement.
Letters 5.15Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus longs to welcome Sulpicius and his companions at the shrine of St. Felix at Nola and offers them a place in its monastery and garden.
Letters 10.3Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus asks Delphinus to intercede for him like the vinedresser who begged a year’s reprieve for the barren fig tree.
Letters 12.10Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus asks Amandus, a lifelong servant of God, to intercede for him as Moses did for Israel, offering to be blotted out of God’s book.
Letters 12.11Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus asks Amandus to bind God by such intercession, and closes for lack of paper.
Letters 13.23Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus prays that God will turn Pammachius’s mourning into joy and reward his alms on the day of judgment.
Letters 23.25Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus explains why Paul requires a woman to be veiled when she prays or prophesies: in spiritual exaltation she most needs the protection of humility.
Letters 24.11Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Christ’s fire and pruning hook clear the soul for a new crop, and his call to ‘be still’ means freedom from worldly affairs in order to be occupied with God.
Letters 24.22Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus asks Sulpicius not to praise him as perfect but to fear and pray for him, since he is only beginning the road.
Letters 24.23Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus asks for prayer that God give victory over flesh, devil, and death, as Abraham overcame the four kings by the figure of the cross, the T of three hundred.
Letters 26.5Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus asks the two brothers to pray for him, since God gives sinners the friendship of saints so that their intercession may win pardon.
Letters 27.4Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus asks Sulpicius to set his young disciples praying for him.
Letters 29.2Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · The camel of the gospel recalls the humble tax collector, who passed through the needle’s eye of humility, while the boasting Pharisee could not.
Letters 29.3Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · The cross is the needle that mends the soul; the cloaks, like the dung for the barren fig tree or Job’s dunghill, foster the humility that God exalts.
Letters 29.13Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus’s small guesthouse held Melania’s party; he describes her ascetic life and prays that she may remain unchanged amid Rome, like the exiles by the rivers of Babylon.
Letters 30.5Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus asks Sulpicius to pray that God blind his eyes to vanity, kill the old man, and paint in him the heavenly image, the only portrait worth having.
Letters 32.6Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus sends two verse epitaphs for Clarus, Martin’s disciple, buried under the altar of Sulpicius’s church, asking his intercession for Paulinus and Therasia.
Letters 32.12Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus describes the porticoes and side chapels of the new basilica and sends verse inscriptions for its doors.
Letters 32.23Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus prays that God build within them the house not made with hands, on Christ the rock, and not with the straw of Egypt’s slavery.
Letters 32.24Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Let us build with the gold, silver, and precious stones of faith and works, in the peace of Solomon’s temple, free of the hammers of worldly care.
Letters 34.9Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · The devil lies in wait on every road, and life in this world is full of dangers, so one needs the protection of many prayers.
Letters 34.10Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · The poor whom one feeds and clothes become a multitude praying for their benefactor, a safeguard in time of need.
Letters 35.1Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Grieving the spiritual neglect of his dead brother, Paulinus asks his spiritual father to pray for the brother’s soul and for himself.
Letters 36.2Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus asks Amandus to pray for the soul of his brother, who died more mindful of worldly affairs than of his salvation.
Letters 36.3Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus asks prayer that he may not die in his sins, but may agree with God’s word while there is time, lest he be condemned like the fool with dead faith.
Letters 37.3Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus asks Victricius’s prayers against his enemies, confessing that he does not even what he owes, unlike Paul, who gave beyond what was owed.
Letters 38.11Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus asks Aper’s prayers and letters, and urges him to serve God with the same zeal he once gave to worldly ambition.
Letters 39.3Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus urges Aper to cultivate his soul as Christ’s field, with prayer, Scripture, the cross, and the fear of God.
Letters 39.4Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus, comparing himself to his little cabbage garden, confesses that he has lost the apostolic salt and needs their prayers.
Letters 39.5Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus asks prayers that the pests of sin may not devour the word sown in him within the Catholic church.
Letters 40.3Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus thanks Sanctus for writing again, with Amandus, asks their prayers, and begs them not to praise him.
Letters 40.7Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · The penitent who withdraws to fight sin is the pelican that kills serpents; when victorious, he becomes the owl that sees in the world’s darkness.
Letters 40.11Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Selling one’s goods is only the start; the harder task is to sell one’s inner self and follow Christ, lest pride in poverty undo the gain.
Letters 40.12Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus warns of the eternal punishment of hell, from which only Christ, the mighty Lord, delivers, and asks Sanctus’s prayers.
Letters 41.1Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus thanks Sanctus for the hymns he sent and, recalling the wise and foolish virgins, prays that their souls may be both virgin and fruitful.
Letters 42.3Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus prays that God, who made Florentius a fisher of men and shepherd, will keep him mindful of Paulinus in his prayers and offerings.
Letters 43.2Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus explains the varying length of his letters to Severus and asks that Victor’s lateness be blamed on him; Victor recovered through Severus’s prayers.
Letters 43.6Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus asks Desiderius to pray that he be given time to repent and bear fruit at every season, like the fig tree spared another year.
Letters 44.6Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Only the fire of Christ may burn on the heart’s altar; Paulinus asks Aper and his household to water his barren garden with prayer.
Letters 44.7Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus asks prayer that God make his barren soul fruitful, through the dung of humility, like the fig tree spared by the farmer’s intercession.
Letters 45.7Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus asks Augustine how angels and the blessed speak, whether ‘tongues of angels’ means a real angelic language or merely kinds of speech.
Letters 47.1Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus sends a letter to Rufinus by Cerealis, hoping Cerealis will stay as his disciple, and that Rufinus will visit Nola before returning East.
Letters 49.5Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Christ heard the poor sailor’s cry, as in the psalms, calmed the sea, and fed him, showing in one man the mercy he has for all.
Letters 49.6Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Christ let the old man sleep at night but keep watch by day, teaching the balance of rest and vigilance that he asks of all Christians.
Letters 50.10Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus asks how supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings in 1 Tim 2:1 differ.
Letters 50.18Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus suggests that the sword through Mary’s soul is the word of God, sharper than any sword, and asks Augustine how it served to reveal the thoughts of many hearts.
Historia monachorum, chapter 1Rufinus of Aquileia · Greek original ca. 394-395; Rufinus's Latin ca. 404-406 · John of Lycopolis: his prophecies to Theodosius and others, healings, and a long discourse to Rufinus’s party on boasting, purity of heart, and solitude, with stories of monks who fell or repented.
Historia monachorum, chapter 7Rufinus of Aquileia · Greek original ca. 394-395; Rufinus's Latin ca. 404-406 · Apollonius of Hermopolis: his call and victory over the demon of pride, his miracles among pagans and in famine, the Easter feast sent from God, and his teaching on joy, hospitality, daily communion and hidden fasting.
Historia monachorum, chapter 15Rufinus of Aquileia · Greek original ca. 394-395; Rufinus's Latin ca. 404-406 · Apelles the smith, who drove off the devil with red-hot iron, tells of the hermit John, who prayed standing for three years, unmasked Satan disguised as a priest, healed, and discerned the state of distant monks.
Historia monachorum, chapter 29Rufinus of Aquileia · Greek original ca. 394-395; Rufinus's Latin ca. 404-406 · Macarius of Alexandria: a paradise in the desert refused as a demonic snare, the bunch of grapes passed round Scetis, his vision of demons distracting monks at prayer and at communion, and a tribune converted by a word.
Historia monachorum, chapter 31Rufinus of Aquileia · Greek original ca. 394-395; Rufinus's Latin ca. 404-406 · Paul the Simple, who left his adulterous wife for the desert, learned perfect obedience from Antony, and through his simplicity worked greater healings than his master.
On Continence 13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Continence is also needed against the pride that excuses one's sins instead of confessing them to God.
On Christian Doctrine 3.37Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · Tyconius's seventh rule concerns the devil and his body; all the rules but one concern figurative expression, and students of Scripture must above all pray for understanding.
On Christian Doctrine 4.15Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · The Christian speaker must rely on prayer more than skill, praying before he preaches, while also preparing diligently, trusting the Spirit to speak through him.
On Christian Doctrine 4.16Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · That the Spirit makes teachers does not make instruction in teaching unnecessary, as Paul's letters to Timothy and Titus show; human teaching, like medicine, works only when God gives the effect.
On Christian Doctrine 4.30Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · Every preacher, whether speaking or dictating his own words or others', should pray before and give thanks after, as Esther prayed before speaking to the king.
Life of Saint Martin 16Sulpicius Severus · ca. 396–397 · At Trier Martin prays, blesses oil, and restores a paralysed girl on the point of death.
Life of Saint Martin 26Sulpicius Severus · ca. 396–397 · Sulpicius says Martin's inner life of unceasing prayer, fasting, and patience is beyond words.
Confessions 1.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine opens by praising God, who made us for himself so that our heart is restless until it rests in him, and asks whether one must know God before calling upon him.
Confessions 1.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine longs for God to enter his heart and asks God to say to his soul, “I am your salvation.”
Confessions 1.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine asks God to enlarge, repair, and cleanse the house of his soul, confessing his sins without contending against God's judgment.
Confessions 1.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine recalls being beaten at school to make him study for worldly success, and how as a boy he prayed to God not to be beaten.
Confessions 1.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine prays that all the useful things he learned as a boy may serve God, who disciplined him and forgave his delight in vain studies.
Confessions 3.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine tells how God heard Monica's tears for her son and consoled her with a dream in which she saw him standing beside her on the same wooden rule.
Confessions 3.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Monica rejects Augustine's twisting of her dream, and he recalls the nearly nine years during which she kept weeping and praying for him while he remained a Manichee.
Confessions 3.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · A bishop who had himself been a Manichee declines to argue with Augustine but assures Monica that the son of so many tears cannot perish.
Confessions 5.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine offers his confessions to God as a sacrifice of praise, noting that God already sees the heart and that all creation praises him.
Confessions 5.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine deceived his mother and sailed secretly for Rome while she prayed all night at Cyprian's shrine, and God denied her immediate request in order to grant her deeper desire.
Confessions 5.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine is sure God would not have despised the prayers and tears of his devout mother, who pressed God's promises to her as if they were his signed pledges.
Confessions 6.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Monica joins Augustine in Milan and, hearing he is no longer a Manichee, calmly declares her faith that she will see him a catholic Christian before she dies.
Confessions 8.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Overcome with weeping, Augustine throws himself down under a fig tree and cries out to God, "Why not now?"
Confessions 9.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · A severe toothache vanishes as soon as Augustine's friends kneel to pray for him.
Confessions 9.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Congregational singing began at Milan during the siege of Ambrose's church by the Arian empress Justina.
Confessions 9.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Falling ill at Ostia, Monica asks only to be remembered at the Lord's altar, wherever her sons may be.
Confessions 9.32Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine does not weep even at the eucharist offered for Monica; a bath does not help, but sleep and Ambrose's hymn ease his grief.
Confessions 9.34Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine now weeps for Monica in another way, praying for her sins, since no one is sinless before God.
Confessions 9.35Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine prays that God will forgive his mother any sins committed after her baptism.
Confessions 9.36Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Monica asked only to be remembered at the altar, where the sacrifice that cancels our debts is offered.
Confessions 9.37Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine asks his readers to remember Monica and Patricius at the altar.
Confessions 10.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine confesses so that brothers may give thanks and pray for him.
Confessions 10.40Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · "Give what you command, and command what you will": continence is God's gift.
Confessions 10.57Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Curiosity about trivial things, a hare hunted or a spider with flies, distracts Augustine even at prayer.
Confessions 11.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · God knows all; Augustine confesses to stir up love, his own and his readers', toward God.
Confessions 11.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine prays for understanding of the hidden depths of Scripture, from the creation to the heavenly city.
Confessions 11.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine prays for understanding of time, which is both perfectly familiar and utterly obscure.
Confessions 13.50Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine prays for the peace of the sabbath without evening, since this world will pass away.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 20.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine argues that Manichaean prayers cannot be pure, since their myth makes their God sacrifice his own members to his enemies, so that their prayers accuse him rather than ask forgiveness.
Canon 23Anonymous · 397 · Prayers at the altar are to be addressed to the Father, and prayers taken from elsewhere must first be checked by more learned brothers.
Canon 9Anonymous · ca. 397–400 · Women vowed to God or widows may not hold services at home without clergy, and the evening office is to be held only in church or with clergy present.
Letters 1.13Sulpicius Severus · ca. 397–406 · When Martin turns to prayer the flames leave him unharmed, and the monks break in and rescue him.
Letters 1.14Sulpicius Severus · ca. 397–406 · Martin himself admitted to Sulpicius that the devil had tricked him into seeking escape before prayer.
Letters 1.15Sulpicius Severus · ca. 397–406 · Once he prayed, the flames felt like dew; the danger was a trial that proved him.
Letters 2.16Sulpicius Severus · ca. 397–406 · Martin will remain with them in prayer and will bless them.
Letters 2.18Sulpicius Severus · ca. 397–406 · His one hope is Martin’s intercession.
Letters 3.11Sulpicius Severus · ca. 397–406 · Moved to tears, Martin prays that he is willing to keep working if needed.
Letters 3.12Sulpicius Severus · ca. 397–406 · Torn between staying and departing, he leaves the choice entirely to God.
Letters 3.13Sulpicius Severus · ca. 397–406 · Martin’s prayer: he will go on serving if God wills, or leave his flock to God’s keeping.
Letters 3.14Sulpicius Severus · ca. 397–406 · In his last fever Martin keeps praying, lying on ashes and sackcloth.
Homily 9.4 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · Chrysostom teaches that though there is no second baptism, repentance remains powerful, and describes its remedy: self-condemnation and confession, humility, prayer and tears, almsgiving, and forgiveness; he ends by showing the emptiness of worldly honors compared with the glory of the saints.
Homily 14.4 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · Chrysostom urges those who have grown old in sin to renew themselves by repentance, to forget their evils by remembering God, especially in prayer at night and dawn, and to keep vigil like contestants in the games before Christ, the judge.
Homily 15.2 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · On Heb 9:9–14, Chrysostom contrasts the Law’s fleshly purifications with Christ’s blood, which cleanses the conscience from dead works, then compares covetousness to harlotry and rebukes laughter and frivolity in church.
Homily 22.2 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · Chrysostom explains how Abel still speaks and how Enoch, taken up alive, pleased God by faith in a rewarder, then urges his hearers to seek God as one seeks lost gold or a lost son, to lift up their minds in prayer, and to overcome the devil's darts and anger by long-suffering.
Homily 27.4 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · Chrysostom contrasts Joshua's command to the sun and moon with Christ's greater promise to dwell with believers, explains that Christ prayed by condescension to teach us to pray, and shows from the parables and the Canaanite woman the power of persistent prayer.
Homily 27.5 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · Chrysostom urges humble, persevering prayer like the tax collector's, warns that small sins and resentment are still sins, and exposes the vainglory of calling oneself a sinner while resenting reproach from others, citing David's patience under Shimei's curses.
Homily 2.5 on the CreationSeverian of Gabala · ca. 400 · Severian explains Isaiah's vision as God's reconciliation with a prophet who had kept silent when Uzziah usurped the priesthood, and reads the Seraphim's covered head and feet and their threefold “Holy” as lessons about God's incomprehensibility and the one Lord.
Homily 3.7 on the CreationSeverian of Gabala · ca. 400 · Closing the third homily, Severian takes the evening lamp as a cue for the evening psalm: hands lifted in prayer must be clean of injustice, as Abraham's were when he refused the spoil of Sodom.
Homily 4.9 on the CreationSeverian of Gabala · ca. 400 · Closing the fourth homily, Severian explains the evening psalm's “incense” as prayer compounded of several virtues, calls self-control the sister of priesthood, gives fasting the wings of prayer and almsgiving, and warns that abstaining from food without abstaining from injustice is vain.
On the Nature of the Good 48Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399 · Augustine closes with a prayer to the patient and merciful God that more Manichaeans may be freed through baptism or repentance, since the keys of the kingdom in the church leave no one beyond hope.
On the Trinity 12.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · The fall in Gen 3 figures how sin arises in one mind: delight in thought is the woman eating alone, and the decision to act is her giving to the man, yet even sins of thought need forgiveness.
On the Trinity 15.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · God learns nothing through senses or messengers but knows all things eternally, and creatures exist because he knows them; so our knowledge and word are far unlike his knowledge and the Word born of the Father's essence.
On the Trinity 15.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine ends the work with a prayer to the triune God, confessing the faith he has sought to understand and asking pardon for his many words.
Krabinger p. 69Synesius of Cyrene · ca. 399-400 · A virtuous, pious emperor who prays publicly to the common King of all brings back the golden age and becomes a lover of mankind.
On Baptism, against the Donatists 4.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–401 · Cyprian’s own letter on prayer complains of church members who renounce the world in words, not deeds; such men are baptized without a good conscience, yet are within the church.
On Baptism, against the Donatists 6.45Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–401 · No one fulfils every word of the Sermon on the Mount, but the sermon itself provides the remedy of forgiving others; those without love, like the envious within, build on sand and are outside the church.
On Baptism, against the Donatists 6.47Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–401 · Faulty prayers over the water, common even among Catholics, do not void baptism, because the gospel words consecrate it and God sanctifies his own sacrament; Christ’s baptism with the gospel words is the same everywhere.
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.100Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Jesus came down to feed the crowds and went back up the mountain, fleeing those who would make him king and praying; John recapitulates the disciples' embarkation.
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.101Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Luke's 'alone praying' with the disciples, when Christ asked who people said he was, is a different occasion from Matthew's prayer alone on the mountain.
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.108Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Peter's confession is in the same order in Matthew and Mark; Luke's 'praying' and Mark's 'on the way' agree, since one can pray while walking.
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.116Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · The healing of the boy with an evil spirit is told by all three in the same order without conflict.
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.130Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Augustine quotes Matthew's account of the healings in the temple, the children's hosanna, and the cursing of the fig tree.
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.151Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Luke's warning against cares and drunkenness explains Matthew's flight 'not in winter or on the Sabbath'; other parallels with Luke reflect anticipation or repetition.
The Harmony of the Gospels 3.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Gethsemane, the Mount of Olives, and John's garden across the Kidron are the same place; Augustine quotes Matthew's account of the prayer in the garden.
The Harmony of the Gospels 3.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Luke adds the angel and the bloody sweat without numbering the prayers; John is silent about the prayer in the garden.
The Harmony of the Gospels 3.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · 'If it is possible' refers to the Father's will, not his power, as Mark's 'all things are possible to you' and Luke's 'if you will' show.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 2.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · If God does not hear sinners, the good among the bad are safe and there is no reason for schism; and John, by saying ‘we have an advocate’, included himself among those who need Christ, the one mediator, whereas Parmenian made the bishop a mediator.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 2.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · Christians pray for one another, but Christ alone intercedes for all as the one mediator; even Paul asked the church’s prayers as a member of the body, and in Christ the members stay one by bearing with the bad.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 2.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · Balaam’s blessings were heard though he was bad, so bad bishops’ prayers for the people can be heard; ‘God does not hear sinners’ was said by the blind man before he knew Christ, and the tax collector was heard as a sinner.
Against the Letters of Petilian 2.121Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–403 · Petilian says Catholic prayers are void because of their bloody consciences.
Against the Letters of Petilian 2.237Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–403 · Every minister is a sinner, as the Lord's Prayer shows; Ps 141:5 contrasts merciful rebuke with flattery, not valid and invalid anointings.
Against the Letters of Petilian 2.240Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–403 · Petilian cites 1 Sam 2:25 (Old Latin) on sinning priests.
Against the Letters of Petilian 2.241Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–403 · Petilian's text would make Donatist bishops sinless; Paul asked for prayers and John and Daniel confessed sin. The sinless priest no one prays for is Christ, foreshadowed by the high priest.
Against the Letters of Petilian 3.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–403 · Augustine will use Petilian's slanders to grow in love of his enemy, praying for him as Christ prayed on the cross.
On the Work of Monks 20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–401 · Monks who say they are occupied with prayer, psalms, and reading can sing psalms while working with their hands, and should obey the apostle whom they read.
On the Work of Monks 29Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–401 · Recluses who shut themselves in for days of prayer must store food, which birds do not do; the monks' literal reading would condemn even these admirable ascetics.
Opusculum 1.5Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Pray for the eyes of the heart to be opened; compassion preserves a gift and boasting loses it.
Opusculum 1.11Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Bodily prayer is like the blind man's cry; spiritual sight confesses Christ as Son of God.
Opusculum 1.12Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Tears in prayer are Christ's gift, not a cause for pride.
Opusculum 1.16Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Vigil, prayer, and patience break the heart beneficially.
Opusculum 1.19Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · No true prayer is harmful.
Opusculum 1.23Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Pray much when you remember God, so he will remind you when you forget.
Opusculum 1.45Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Praying for wrongdoers defeats demons; pleasing the Lord conquers both.
Opusculum 1.64Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Almsgiving and prayer recover the negligent.
Opusculum 1.93Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Only prayer and repentance escape evil; vices and virtues each grow by each other.
Opusculum 1.115Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · True prayer bears trials; injury from others brings future good.
Opusculum 1.133Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Prayer for a neighbour is better than constant rebuke.
Opusculum 1.165Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Pray against temptation, but accept it as your own when it comes.
Opusculum 1.189Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Doing God's will spares great labours; the Lord is hidden in his commandments.
Opusculum 1.192Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Grace governs the mind; conscience and prayer need each other.
Opusculum 2.9Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Afflictions spring from our sins, but endured with prayer they bring good.
Opusculum 2.28Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Stillness with the four virtues and prayer is the shortest road to dispassion.
Opusculum 2.29Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Stillness of mind needs the body and prayer.
Opusculum 2.31Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Perfect prayer is undistracted inner invocation.
Opusculum 2.32Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Undistracted prayer brings a contrite heart, which God accepts.
Opusculum 2.33Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Prayer is the mother of virtues through union with Christ.
Opusculum 2.34Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Action without prayer and hope ends badly.
Opusculum 2.37Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Cleaving to God in prayer surpasses useful outward thoughts.
Opusculum 2.40Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Unrepented sin is the sin unto death.
Opusculum 2.81Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Heartfelt prayer draws stronger attacks from the devil.
Opusculum 2.87Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Pray constantly, since nothing is done without God's help.
Opusculum 2.88Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Prayer is the most powerful aid.
Opusculum 2.89Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Prayer contains all commandments; undistracted prayer shows love for God.
Opusculum 2.90Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Vigil, patience, and prayer bring the Spirit; faith from hearing differs from faith as substance of hope.
Opusculum 2.91Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Helping others by virtue and prayer surpasses words.
Opusculum 2.92Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Prayer, right faith, and patience lead to every good.
Opusculum 2.100Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Words and deeds without prayer go wrong.
Opusculum 2.135Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Knowledge of truth comes by hope in Christ; prayer conquers the powers.
Opusculum 2.136Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Paul's spiritual warfare explains the parable on constant prayer.
Opusculum 2.147Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · The passionate need prayer and obedience.
Opusculum 2.148Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Fighting self-will by obedience and prayer is skilful athletics.
Opusculum 2.153Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Life must match progress, and prayer must match life.
Opusculum 2.154Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Seek the kingdom alone, or else pray about each need.
Opusculum 2.155Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Neglecting prayer breeds disobedience; hope for future good frees from anger.
Opusculum 2.160Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Entrust affairs to God in prayer and hope.
Opusculum 2.162Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · In pure prayer reject even knowledge offered by the enemy.
Opusculum 2.163Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Thinking about things helps in temptation but harms pure prayer.
Opusculum 2.211Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Love of God and neighbour, through detachment and stillness, leads to Christ's inner house, sought by persevering prayer.
Opusculum 3.5Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Greed of any gift is wealth that rots; comprehensive commandments contain the particular ones, and condemnation comes from refusing repentance.
Opusculum 3.9Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Neglected small sins grow; God's help often comes through affliction.
Opusculum 4.4Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · God's delay exposes love of evil thoughts; only Adam's death was inherited, and Christ's perfect grace in baptism is revealed by keeping the commandments.
Opusculum 5.1Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Mark writes to Nicolas, now absent, to repeat in writing his counsel against anger and desire.
Opusculum 5.3Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Keep remembrance against forgetfulness and passions; no one is a true Christian without humbly taking up the cross.
Opusculum 5.13Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Mark arms Nicolas against the three giants with remembrance, knowledge, and eagerness; Nicolas replies with thanks.
Opusculum 6.15Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · The unsetting Sun of righteousness and Joshua's sun and moon figure the light of knowledge and natural discernment.
Opusculum 6.23Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · After defeating the passions, pray for a clean heart filled with divine thoughts.
Opusculum 6.26Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Grace is always present but varies in intensity; no Christian is yet wholly perfect or free from sin.
Opusculum 6.27Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Grace works in turns: childlike love for all, entry into heavenly dwellings, prayer for the world, spiritual warfare, and joy.
Opusculum 7.0Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · An old ascetic answers a lawyer on not going to law, on prayer, on worldly wisdom, and on people-pleasing, then teaches his monks that afflictions come by God's just judgment.
Opusculum 8.4Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · The spiritual law judges hidden things; forgiving those who wrong us is the greatest virtue and reveals baptismal grace.
Opusculum 9.2Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Food is not sin, but excess and excessive abstinence both harm; fasting must be sown with prayer.
Opusculum 9.3Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Fasting prepares the soil for prayer; practise it with discernment, dividing one's bread over the fast days.
Commentary on Daniel 2, scholion 7Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · Daniel approached Arioch calmly, trusting in prayer.
Commentary on Daniel 2, scholion 11Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · The four youths prayed together, knowing only God reveals mysteries.
Commentary on Daniel 2, scholion 12Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · God answered the youths' prayer so that the righteous would not die with the ungodly.
Commentary on Daniel 2, scholion 16Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · Daniel responded to the revelation with praise, not self-congratulation.
Commentary on Daniel 6, scholion 11Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · Daniel, knowing the decree, prayed more earnestly toward Jerusalem, choosing to obey God even at the risk of death.
Commentary on Daniel 9, scholion 1Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · Daniel, reading Jeremiah's seventy years, prayed for the people's return.
Commentary on Daniel 9, scholion 2Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · Daniel prayed because the seventy years were nearly complete and the people did not seek their return.
Commentary on Daniel 9, scholion 3Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · Polychronius distinguishes the terms of Daniel's confession of sin.
Commentary on Daniel 9, scholion 6Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · Daniel appeals to God's compassion, confessing Israel's disobedience.
Commentary on Daniel 9, scholion 12Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · Daniel appeals to the exodus as precedent for God's undeserved mercy.
Commentary on Daniel 9, scholion 13Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · Daniel appeals to God for the sake of desolate Jerusalem.
Commentary on Daniel 9, scholion 14Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · Daniel asks God to hear his prayer.
Commentary on Daniel 9, scholion 15Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · Daniel asks God to look on the people's misery and the ruined city.
Commentary on Daniel 9, scholion 16Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · Daniel asks for mercy, not on the basis of merit, for the sake of God's name.
Commentary on Daniel 9, scholion 18Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · Gabriel came swiftly while Daniel was still praying.
Commentary on Daniel 10, scholion 5Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · Daniel's three weeks of mourning were an unbroken fast of twenty-one days.
Commentary on Daniel 10, scholion 14Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · Daniel's companions prayed with him, but he alone saw the vision.
Commentary on Daniel 10, scholion 18Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · God sent the angel from the first day of Daniel's prayer.
Hymn 1, lines 65–101Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Christ rose from the dead at cockcrow; so the soul should wake from sin and worldly dreams and pray to him for new light.
Hymn 2, lines 33–64Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · While others begin the day’s trades, Christians begin it in prayer to Christ, asking him to keep them as pure as at their baptism.
Hymn 5, lines 129–152Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · The faithful keep the night vigil with prayers and offerings by the light of hanging lamps, offering to God the light he gave, and end with a doxology to the Father through Christ in threefold power.
Hymn 6, lines 1–32Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Before sleep the poet invokes the Trinity, Father, Word and Spirit, one power and one light, and describes sleep as God’s healing gift, during which the mind roams free and sees hidden things.
Hymn 6, lines 129–151Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Before sleeping the Christian signs forehead and heart with the Cross, which drives away sin, darkness and the deceiving serpent, and keeps the mind on Christ even in sleep.
Poem, lines 901–930Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · John in his vision saw the end of the world while still in the body; much more will the soul, freed from the body, see; the damned and the righteous see each other across the gulf, as did Lazarus and the rich man; the poet’s closing prayer to God begins.
Poem, lines 931–965Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · The poet confesses his sins and asks Christ that at death no demon may drag his soul into hell; he does not ask for the heavenly mansions of the chaste and the virgins, but only that, if he must suffer fire, his punishment may be light.
Hymn 1, lines 1–32Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · The two martyrs of Calahorra, whose names are written in heaven, are honored by pilgrims who find their prayers heard through the martyrs’ intercession; death by the persecutor’s sword is a glorious door to heaven.
Hymn 2, lines 513–544Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Romans of every rank, even former pagan priests and a Vestal, now honor the apostles and martyrs; the poet, far away in Spain, envies those who can pray at Lawrence’s tomb in a Rome full of saints.
Hymn 2, lines 545–583Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · The poet honors Lawrence in heaven, a citizen and perpetual consul of the heavenly Rome who grants the prayers of the Romans, and asks him, as patron, to intercede for the sinful poet Prudentius.
Hymn 4, lines 161–203Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Four martyrs named Saturninus complete the eighteen, whose names are written in the book of heaven; Engratia, Vincent, and the confessors Caius and Crementius are added; the martyrs beneath the altar pray for the city’s sins, and the poet calls the city to prayer at their tombs.
Hymn 5, lines 545–578Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Vincent, victor in death and after it, is asked to present the people’s prayers before the Father’s throne so that Christ may forgive them, and the poet prays that the flesh, which shared the martyr’s labors, may share his glory in the resurrection.
Hymn 6, lines 65–96Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · At the pyre in the amphitheatre Fructuosus refuses his friends’ homage, takes off his own shoes as Moses did at the bush, and promises to pray for all; a voice from heaven declares that this fire is not punishment but the reshaping of life.
Hymn 6, lines 97–128Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · The martyrs enter the fire; their bonds burn away and they raise their arms in the form of the cross, like the three young men in the furnace; at their prayer God takes them; a servant of the governor and the governor’s daughter see them borne into heaven.
Hymn 7, lines 33–64Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Quirinus encourages his frightened people from the water; fearing to lose his martyrdom, he prays to Jesus, recalling that Christ made the sea firm under Peter’s feet.
Hymn 7, lines 65–89Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Quirinus recalls the Jordan turning back and asks Christ, whose power is now shown, to let him die for him; as he prays he dies, the stone sinks, and the waters take his body.
Hymn 9, lines 1–32Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · On his way to Rome the poet prayed at the tomb of Cassian at Forum Cornelii (Imola) and saw a painting of the martyr pierced by schoolboys’ styluses; the sacristan explains that Cassian was a teacher of shorthand, arrested for refusing to sacrifice.
Hymn 9, lines 65–96Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · The boys mock Cassian as they wound him, until Christ releases his soul; the sacristan invites the poet to pray to the martyr, who hears worthy prayers, and the poet embraces the tomb in tears.
Hymn 9, lines 97–122Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · The poet prays at Cassian’s tomb about his troubles and his journey; his prayer is heard, his business in Rome succeeds, and on his return he proclaims Cassian.
Hymn 10, lines 801–832Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Romanus appeals to Christ; the judge orders the child beheaded and Romanus burned; the mother hands over her son with one kiss, asking him to remember her in Christ’s kingdom, sings Psalm 116 as he is beheaded, and catches his head in her cloak.
Hymn 10, lines 1089–1125Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Romanus is strangled in prison; the prefect’s records perish with time, but an angel recorded every word and wound in the heavenly book to be read at the judgment, and the poet hopes that Romanus will intercede to move him from the goats to the lambs.
Hymn 11, lines 161–192Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Beside Hippolytus’ tomb stands the altar of the Eucharist; the poet himself was helped there in prayer and credits Hippolytus with his safe return; crowds kiss the silver shrine daily, and on his feast all Rome flocks there.
Hymn 11, lines 225–245Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · The poet asks Bishop Valerian to add Hippolytus’ feast to the yearly feasts of his church, and prays that Valerian may guard his flock, bring back the poet as a sick sheep, and join Hippolytus in heaven.
Hymn 14, lines 33–64Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Agnes is exposed in the square; the people turn away, and one youth who looks on her with lust is struck blind by lightning, though some say she prayed for his healing; the defeated judge orders her killed by the sword.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 23Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Christ's prayer for the disciples' sanctification was answered, because it was offered after Judas had already perished by leaving the group at the Last Supper.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 50Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · The answer explains Alleluia as “praise with song the One who is”; the explanation of Hosanna is lost.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 105Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Christ prayed often, as he hungered and thirsted, by his own will, to show that he truly shared our human nature against those who would deny it.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 107Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · The church keeps simple singing but rejects the instruments, dancing, and castanets fit for children; sung psalms calm the passions, repel evil thoughts, strengthen martyrs, and console the faithful as the sword of the Spirit.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 114–116Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Three questions: God's being creator in potentiality before creating implies no lack, since his power acts by will, not natural necessity; Christians do not kneel on Sundays and from Easter to Pentecost, as a sign of the resurrection, a custom Irenaeus traces to the apostles; and the risen Christ either created his clothing or took it from elsewhere.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 118–124Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Seven questions run together: why Christians pray facing east (as the more honored direction, received from the apostles); why Cain's offering was rejected (he kept the better for himself); why sinners who rise do not inherit God's kingdom (the kingdom belongs to the just only); anathema and katathema (fragmentary); Christ's “hour” (God's providence, not fate); why man, who can become evil, is still the best of creatures; and why the pious receive no earthly reward (their reward is future, though God has shown his providence in history).
On the Good of Marriage 11Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Marriage itself is not a sin; what the apostle pardons is intercourse beyond the purpose of procreation, which marriage excuses.
On Holy Virginity 42Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Virginity is God's gift, and Scripture's prayers for obedience and repentance show that even what God commands is done only by his grace.
On Holy Virginity 48Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Since all the baptized, virgins included, must pray 'Forgive us our debts', no one should boast of being free from sin.
On Holy Virginity 53Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Augustine urges virgins to follow the Lamb humbly, trusting God to keep his gifts, praying against temptation, and confessing their sins.
On Holy Virginity 57Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Augustine closes with the hymn of the three youths in the furnace, which joins holiness to humility.
Canon 103 (Bruns)Anonymous · 401–424 (collection of 419) · Only liturgical prayers approved in council, or collected by the more prudent, are to be used.
Canon 115 (Bruns)Anonymous · 401–424 (collection of 419) · Anathema on whoever says that the saints pray "Forgive us our debts" only for others and not for themselves.
Canon 116 (Bruns)Anonymous · 401–424 (collection of 419) · Anathema on whoever says that the saints pray "Forgive us our debts" out of humility and not truly.
Letter 10, inscriptionInnocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent sends greetings by the returning presbyter Germanus and asks for prayers.
Letter 25, chapter 2Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · The names of those who bring offerings are to be read within the eucharistic prayer, after the offerings are commended, not before.
Letter 25, chapter 8Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent rules that the anointing of the sick in James 5 may be given with the bishop’s oil by presbyters, by the bishop himself, and even by lay Christians, but not to penitents, and dates the letter 19 March 416.
Letter 29, chapter 4Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent argues that we need God’s help daily, whether to live better or to return from error, and that free will alone cannot resist sin.
Letter 29, chapter 5Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Citing David’s prayer for God’s help in Psalm 27, Innocent asks how Pelagius and Caelestius can claim that we need no divine help.
Letter 29, chapter 7Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent declares those who deny the need for divine help enemies of the catholic faith and excludes Pelagius and Caelestius from communion.
Letter 30, chapter 3Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Denying God’s help abolishes prayer; Adam fell by trusting his liberty, and David prays for God’s help in the Psalms.
Book 1, preface, lines 61–89Prudentius · ca. 402-403 · Just as the Church came to rest in peace, the eloquent Symmachus, like the viper, struck at it, but his venom did not penetrate; the poet prays Christ to have mercy on him and not let him perish in the fire.
Book 2, preface, lines 31–63Prudentius · ca. 402-403 · Peter began to sink and Christ rebuked his weak faith and lifted him up; so the poet, a sinner launching out against the eloquent Symmachus, asks Christ to hold out his hand so that he may stand on the waves.
Dialogues 2.5Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · Valentinian I, influenced by his Arian wife, refused to see Martin; after fasting and prayer Martin entered the palace, and fire under the throne forced the emperor to rise and grant his requests.
Dialogues 3.2Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · At Chartres Martin heals a girl mute from birth with blessed oil, in the presence of the bishops Valentinus and Victricius.
Dialogues 3.6Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · Demons in the possessed cried out whenever Martin set out for the church; he exorcised by prayer in sackcloth and ashes, and the demons confessed their names.
Dialogues 3.7Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · Martin’s prayer freed a district near Sens from hail for twenty years; the storms returned in the year of his death.
Dialogues 3.8Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · Martin drives a demon from Avitianus’s back, after which the count is gentler; at Amboise a storm overthrows a pagan temple after Martin’s night of prayer.
Dialogues 3.9Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · A column from heaven shatters an idol; a woman with a flow of blood is healed by touching Martin’s garment; a snake turns back at his command.
Dialogues 3.14Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · Martin’s power returns: a possessed man is healed at the gate; a pagan merchant saved at sea by calling on Martin’s God; a household plague ended after seven days of prayer; a monk’s indecency perceived from afar.
Letter to the Catholics on the Sect of the Donatists (On the Unity of the Church) 49Augustine of Hippo · ca. 405 · Miracles, answered prayers at Donatist shrines, and visions prove nothing, for God and even deceiving spirits grant requests to pagans, Jews and heretics; the church, like Christ its head, must be recognized from Scripture.
Against Cresconius 2.35Augustine of Hippo · ca. 405–406 · Augustine shows from the Lord's Prayer and 1 John 1:8 that every minister is a sinner, so Cresconius's rule would leave no one able to baptize.
1 Corinthians 7:5Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Spouses may abstain by consent for prayer; continence sanctifies, as at Sinai and with the priestly bread.
1 Corinthians 11:4Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Men should pray uncovered, women veiled as a sign of subjection.
1 Corinthians 11:13Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul appeals to their own judgment.
1 Corinthians 14:13Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The tongue-speaker should pray for interpretation.
1 Corinthians 14:14Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Prayer in a tongue leaves the mind fruitless; one must pray and sing with understanding.
1 Corinthians 14:16Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The unlearned cannot say Amen to what they do not understand.
1 Thessalonians 1:2Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul's constant prayers show his love for them.
1 Thessalonians 3:10Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul longs to see them and supply any gaps in their teaching.
1 Thessalonians 5:17Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Unceasing prayer is prayer of the heart, or a life that itself pleads with God.
1 Timothy 2:1Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Christians must pray for all, even persecutors.
1 Timothy 2:2Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Prayer for rulers secures peace, which must serve godliness, not luxury.
1 Timothy 2:8Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Prayer may be offered anywhere, with hands clean of evil and a mind free of anger.
2 Corinthians 1:11Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The church's prayer helps Paul, as it freed Peter, and many give thanks for him.
2 Corinthians 12:9Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Even saints may ask what cannot be granted; persistent prayer earns an answer.
2 Thessalonians 1:11Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · God asks of us what we can do and grants by his grace what we cannot.
2 Thessalonians 3:1Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul asks prayer for the gospel's spread, setting an example of humility.
2 Thessalonians 3:2Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul asks deliverance from evil men who do not believe.
Colossians 1:3Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Lemma of Col 1:3.
Colossians 1:7Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Epaphras, the Colossians' teacher, faithfully prays for them.
Colossians 1:9Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul prays that they know God's will, since without such knowledge they cannot do it.
Colossians 3:16Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Laypeople should know Scripture abundantly and sing spiritual songs from the heart.
Colossians 4:2Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Prayer must be watchful and thankful.
Colossians 4:3Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul asks prayer for his freedom to preach.
Colossians 4:12Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Epaphras's prayers help the Colossians' own efforts to persevere.
Ephesians 1:16Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul remembers the Ephesians in prayer, his chief delight.
Ephesians 3:14Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Lemma of Eph 3:14.
Ephesians 4:7Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Each receives grace according to Christ's gift and the capacity he prepares in himself.
Ephesians 5:19Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Christians should speak and sing God's words from the heart.
Ephesians 6:18Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Prayer must be constant, attentive, and offered by the holy for the holy.
Philemon 1:4Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Lemma of Phlm 4.
Philemon 1:22Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul expects release, showing that he was freed after his first Roman imprisonment.
Philippians 1:4Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul prays for them with joy, not grief over their sins.
Philippians 1:9Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul prays that their love may grow in knowledge.
Philippians 1:19Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Even hostile preaching will turn out for Paul's good, since it spreads the church.
Philippians 4:6Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Believers should pray with thanksgiving, not anxiety or complaint.
Romans 8:26Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The Spirit helps us ask for heavenly things, since we do not know what to pray for.
Romans 8:27Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The Spirit "intercedes" by making us pray; "spirit" here means the grace of the Spirit.
Romans 12:12Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Hope's joy helps endure all; persistent prayer brings help in adversity.
Romans 15:30Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul asks the church's prayers, which freed Peter from prison.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 6.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The dove's groaning signifies the Spirit, who makes us groan with longing for our heavenly homeland; the Church, like Noah's ark, holds both ravens, who seek their own, and doves, who seek Christ's.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 7.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The tenth hour signifies the law of ten commandments, which Christ, its giver and teacher, fulfills through love; those who cannot fulfill it should flee to his mercy and use the prayer he composed.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 7.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · As petitioners to the emperor have a lawyer draft their petition, Christ composed the Lord's Prayer for us with its condition of forgiving others; one who prays it falsely obtains nothing from God, who cannot be deceived.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 10.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Augustine urges his hearers to bear tribulation in hope and to pray to the God who hears within the heart, not on mountains or toward the stars.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 12.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Augustine urges watchfulness and daily confession even of small sins, which if neglected sink the soul like water seeping into a ship.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 15.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · With understanding present, the woman is told to believe: God is spirit and is worshiped not on a mountain or in a temple but in spirit and truth.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 15.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · God is not found by climbing mountains but by humility; the believer must become God's temple and pray within.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 21.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · We may call Christ's Father “our Father,” but Christ always distinguished “my Father” from “your Father,” since he is Son by nature and we by adoption.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 26.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The fathers who ate manna without faith died, while Moses and others who understood it spiritually did not; so the sacrament differs from its power, and one should approach the altar with innocence and forgiveness.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 34.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Following is present, having the light is future: now we follow by faith, then we shall see; meanwhile we desire God, who alone sees that desire and gives himself.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 52.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ's prayer in his trouble teaches the tempted to set God's will above their own, as he did in Gethsemane and as Peter did in martyrdom.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 52.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The devil still attacks believers from without but cannot reign within, and God heals and guards them through Christ and prayer.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 53.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Free choice must not be defended so as to make prayer for grace needless, nor denied so as to excuse sin; both faith and its power are God's gifts.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 56.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Baptism washes the whole person, but the daily sins of life among earthly things are the feet, washed daily through Christ's intercession, confession and the Lord's Prayer.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 57.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Preachers who fear defilement must still open to Christ, asking him to wash the feet soiled by the praise and blame that come with preaching.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 58.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Washing one another's feet means confessing sins to one another, praying for one another and forgiving one another, as Christ intercedes for and forgives us.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 73.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Many prayers are not granted because they are asked badly; God in mercy withholds what would harm, as the Israelites' craving for meat shows.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 73.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The promise cannot be limited to the apostles, yet even Paul did not receive what he asked three times.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 73.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · To ask "in the name" of Jesus, the Savior, is to ask for what serves salvation, as taught in the Lord's Prayer; what harms salvation he grants by refusing.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 73.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Some rightly asked things are deferred, not denied; and the Son grants prayers together with the Father, for they are one.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 81.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Those who abide in Christ, whose words abide in them, ask only what serves salvation, as taught in the Lord's Prayer, and receive it.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 86.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ makes good those he chooses and appoints them to bear the fruit of love, which remains and through which the Father grants what serves salvation.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 98.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The spiritual do not hide the faith from the carnal but do not overload them; the milk of the faith is the basic teaching handed on in the Creed and the Lord's Prayer.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 101.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · "You will not ask me anything" is puzzling, since the risen Christ was both questioned and asked, as by Stephen.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 102.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · To ask in Christ's name is to ask with a true understanding of him and for what serves salvation; such prayers are granted, at the proper time, for those who ask.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 102.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Only what leads to full spiritual joy is truly asked in Christ's name; anything else asked is nothing by comparison.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 102.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The promised plain speech is the spiritual understanding of God as incorporeal; the spiritual know that Christ as man intercedes for us and as God hears us with the Father.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 104.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ prayed aloud to teach us; the hour of his passion came not by fate or the stars but by the ordering of God, who with the Father fixed all times.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 107.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ prays not for the world, those who live by worldly desire, but for those the Father has given him.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 109.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ prayed for all who would ever believe through the apostles' word, including believers of later ages.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 109.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Augustine raises the difficulty that many who had already believed, such as Nathanael, Joseph of Arimathea, Mary, and the crowds, seem left out of Christ's prayer.
Against Vigilantius 6Jerome · 406 · Jerome argues that the martyrs are with Christ and can pray for others, and rejects Vigilantius's appeal to an apocryphal Ezra.
Against Vigilantius 9Jerome · 406 · Jerome defends frequent vigils at the martyrs' shrines: abuses by a few do not condemn the practice, any more than at the Easter vigil.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 6.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · If our heart truly testifies that we love sincerely, we have confidence before God and receive what we ask, because we keep his commandment of love.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 6.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Augustine raises the difficulty that Paul, who certainly had love, asked and did not receive, and recalls how 'sin' in John and in John 15:22 refers to particular sins.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 6.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Paul's prayer for the removal of the thorn was not granted according to his will but was heard for his salvation; the saints are always heard for their eternal salvation.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 6.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Some are heard for their salvation though not according to their will, like Paul; others, like the devil with Job and the demons with the pigs, are heard according to their will to their damnation.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 6.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · God, like a physician, gives not what we want but what heals; love itself, poured into our hearts by the Spirit, prays in us and is always heard.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 9.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · We are 'as he is' by likeness, not equality: as God loves his enemies by sending sun and rain on all, we love ours by praying for them with tears.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.2Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Some so trust free choice that they deny we need God's help not to sin, which would make the petition “Do not bring us into temptation” pointless.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.4Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Concupiscence remains after baptism without guilt, harming only those who consent to it; the Lord's Prayer asks forgiveness for past consent, help against present temptation, and final deliverance from concupiscence.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.5Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · God does not help us sin but helps us do good and even to turn to him, so that every command of his becomes a prayer: “Give what you command.”
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.6Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Even the Pharisee thanked God for his righteousness; those who think righteousness comes from themselves are worse, though our will must also strive, since God helps only those who make an effort, in ways known to him alone.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.13Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Daniel confessed “my sins and the sins of my people,” refuting the claim that saints pray “forgive us” only on behalf of others.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.18Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · There are truly righteous people on earth, but none is without sin, and all need the Lord's Prayer.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.21Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · All the righteous praised in Scripture and since are truly great but not without sin, and each of them needs the Lord's Prayer.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.33Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Grace opens what was hidden and makes the good delightful; pride and its penal consequence make obedience hard, and God heals even saints slowly so that they remain humble and give him thanks.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 3.23Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Sinlessness is to be desired, sought, and prayed for, but no one should believe it achieved; all need the Lord's Prayer, and God leaves death and some weakness to keep the righteous humble.
On the Christian Life 11Fastidius · ca. 411-430 · The oppressor who approaches church with hands stained by injustice prays in vain; only pure hands and an innocent conscience are heard.
On the Christian Life 15Fastidius · ca. 411-430 · The author applies his teaching to the widow he addresses: of three kinds of widows, she should be the true widow of 1 Tim 5, devoted to prayer and works of mercy.
On the Spirit and the Letter 22Augustine of Hippo · 412 · The law of works commands, “Do what I command”; the law of faith prays, “Give what you command”; justification is by faith and free grace, not by the merits of deeds.
On the Spirit and the Letter 56Augustine of Hippo · 412 · The faith Paul commends is not servile belief that fears punishment but the faith of sons that asks God for righteousness and continence, obtains the Spirit, and works through love.
On the Spirit and the Letter 65Augustine of Hippo · 412 · Even the lesser righteousness of this life requires consenting to no unlawful desire, yet Scripture shows that no one lives without sin, so all must pray for forgiveness and grace.
Commentary on Isaiah 3, Tome 4, part 5Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Hezekiah sends the priests in sackcloth to Isaiah, likening Jerusalem to a woman unable to give birth, and asks for his prayers (Isa 37:2–4); God answers at once that Sennacherib, driven by a spirit of fear, will return home and fall by the sword (Isa 37:6–7).
Commentary on Isaiah 3, Tome 4, part 6Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Sennacherib, alarmed by Tharaca's advance, withdraws but sends a letter blaspheming the God of Israel (Isa 37:8–13); Hezekiah spreads it before the Lord and prays to the Lord of hosts enthroned on the cherubim, the only God and Creator (Isa 37:14–17).
Commentary on Isaiah 3, Tome 4, part 7Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Hezekiah confesses God as the only true King and Creator, and asks him to save Jerusalem so that all kingdoms may know he alone is God, unlike the idols the Assyrians burned (Isa 37:18–20); God at once answers through Isaiah, accepting Hezekiah's zeal, and pronounces his word against Sennacherib (Isa 37:21–24).
Commentary on Isaiah 3, Tome 4, part 13Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · According to a Jewish tradition Hezekiah had grown proud, so God disciplined him with sickness as a loving father and a physician do, and warned him of death to spur him to prayer; God answered at once, adding fifteen years and the sign of the shadow on the steps (Isa 38:1–8).
Commentary on Isaiah 3, Tome 4, part 15Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Hezekiah's lament (Isa 38:11–13) and his thanksgiving: rescued by looking to God, he confesses that God cast away his sins, since no one is pure of sin; only the living can praise God, and his promise of children who would declare God's righteousness was frustrated by Manasseh (Isa 38:14–20); the fig poultice and the sign follow (Isa 38:21–22).
Commentary on Isaiah 1, Discourse 2, part 25Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · The converted nations, bound by love of Christ, confess that God is in him and there is no God besides him (Isa 45:14–16); Cyril explains this of the Son's oneness with the Father and of the one incarnate Son, not divided into two.
Commentary on Isaiah 1, Discourse 4, part 9Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Cyril explains “sanctify him” (Isa 49:7) as honouring as holy the one who suffered mockery and death in the flesh, whom kings will worship, and calls the time of the incarnation the “day of salvation” (Isa 49:8).
Commentary on Isaiah 1, Discourse 4, part 10Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Cyril rejects the view of earlier interpreters that Isa 49:8 answers Christ’s unheard prayer in Gethsemane, explaining the prayer instead as an act of the economy and a pattern for Christians in temptation.
Commentary on Isaiah 5, Tome 3, part 19Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Under threat of war the Jews fasted and prayed, thinking abstinence alone would justify them while they lived in sin; God rejects such fasting, for though fasting, prayer, and humility are precious, he does not accept a fast in which people pursue their own wills.
Commentary on Isaiah 5, Tome 4, part 1Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · God answers at once those who fast purely and give to the poor: their light breaks forth early, healing and righteousness go before them, and God says “Here I am” while they are still praying (Isa 58:8–9).
Commentary on Luke 6:12Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · Christ’s night of prayer on the mountain teaches us to pray in secret, intently and patiently; it does not show the Son lacking anything, against the Arians, nor that a separate man prayed, against the followers of Nestorius, since the Word made flesh prayed as man for our example.
Commentary on Luke 9:12Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · The disciples, already learning to care for the people, asked Christ to dismiss the crowds; he multiplied five loaves and two fish, looking to heaven to teach us to bless our food, and the miracle matches the manna as the work of the same divine power.
Commentary on Luke 9:18Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · Christ’s prayer after the miracle of the loaves might have confused the disciples, so he drew from them, through Peter, the confession that he is the Christ of God—not one of many anointed ones but the Father’s own Son made flesh, one Christ, not two.
Commentary on Luke 11:1Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · Christ, full of all that is the Father’s, needed nothing, yet prayed as man by the economy, as he ate and slept, to teach us to pray earnestly, alone and quietly, not for show like the Pharisees.
Commentary on Luke 11:2 (part 1)Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · By letting us call God Father, Christ, the only Son free by nature, raises us slaves to the freedom of sons through rebirth by water and Spirit, having taken our poverty to give us his riches; calling God Father obliges us to live worthily of him.
Commentary on Luke 11:2 (part 2)Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · “Hallowed be your name” asks not that God become holier but that we and all the world confess his holiness and become holy; “Your kingdom come” is fitting only for those ready to face Christ’s return in judgment; “Your will be done” asks that men on earth live like the angels and that sin be removed.
Commentary on Luke 11:3Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · Though some read the “daily bread” spiritually, Christ meant real bread for the day, teaching his disciples a holy poverty that asks only for sufficiency; ἐπιούσιος means “sufficient.”
Commentary on Luke 11:4Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · We may ask forgiveness only having forgiven others and turned from sin; “lead us not into temptation” teaches humility about our weakness, yet when temptation from heretics or passions comes we must fight with God’s help.
Commentary on Luke 11:5Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · The parable of the friend at midnight teaches persevering prayer: God may delay because he knows what and when to give, and what is won without effort is despised; against the devil, our passions and heretics we must pray unceasingly.
Commentary on Luke 11:11Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · God does not grant harmful requests any more than a father gives a stone to a child asking for it, but he gladly gives the good Spirit, that is spiritual grace, to those who ask.
Commentary on Luke 18:1Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · We must pray constantly and without doubting, as the persistent widow did; Christians bear their own injuries without rancour, but may pray against heretics and persecutors who attack God’s glory and the preaching of the faith.
Commentary on Luke 18:8Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · The question whether the Son of Man will find faith foretells apostasy in the last times; we may pray against heretics and against Satan, whom the incarnate Word cast out; the parable is not to be allegorized curiously, and “will he find faith?” signals that few will keep it.
Commentary on Luke 18:10Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · The Pharisee is condemned for praising himself and measuring himself against the wicked; the tax collector, ashamed and confessing his sins like a patient to his physician, went home justified; the humble are exalted and the proud brought low.
Commentary on Luke 22:40Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · Christ prays alone, as a pattern of quiet prayer, not needing help as the Father’s own power; his request to be spared the cup shows human reverence and grief at Israel’s guilt, yet he freely chose the cross; his human fear was real but mastered by the Word’s power, so that human nature, transformed first in him, might be healed and strengthened in us.
Letter 21 (Cyril to the same)Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · From Ephesus before the council opens, Cyril tells his people he is well and confident that Christ will restore the right faith, and asks their prayers.
Letter 26 (Cyril to the fathers of the monks (from Ephesus))Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · After Nestorius's deposition Cyril asks the Egyptian monks to keep praying for the bishops, as Moses prayed while Joshua fought Amalek.
Letter 49 (Cyril to Maximian of Constantinople)Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · Cyril tells Maximian of Constantinople that, through his prayers, John of Antioch and his bishops have accepted Nestorius's deposition and communion has been restored.
City of God 19.26Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine says that the earthly city's peace, though not its final good, benefits the pilgrim people of God, who are therefore told to pray for rulers and for the peace of Babylon.
City of God 19.27Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine says that in this life the peace and righteousness of the saints consist more in the forgiveness of sins than in perfect virtue, as the Lord's Prayer shows, while in the final peace God will rule the whole person without conflict.
City of God 21.18Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine reports the view of some that at the judgment the saints' intercession will obtain mercy for all human beings, with their arguments from Psalm 77, Nineveh, Psalm 31, and Romans 11, and notes that they are pleading their own case.
City of God 21.22Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine reports the view that those who give alms and forgive others, however wicked their lives, will escape eternal punishment, relying on James 2:13, Matthew 25, and the Lord's Prayer.
City of God 21.24Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The saints will not pray for the damned at the judgment, as the church does not pray for the devil or for the ungodly dead; some of the regenerate dead are helped by prayer, but the threat of eternal punishment is true, and Psalm 77, Nineveh, Psalm 31, and Romans 11 do not teach otherwise.
City of God 21.27Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Almsgiving and the Lord's Prayer forgive daily sins of those who are changing their lives, but cannot buy impunity for continued crimes; there is a hidden class of lesser sins pardoned through the intercession of holy friends, but deliverance keeps one from eternal fire, never releases one from it.
On Faith and Works 48Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · Life must accord with baptism; there are grave sins requiring excommunication, lesser ones healed by rebuke, and daily sins forgiven through the Lord's Prayer.
On the Good of Widowhood 21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · Against “enemies of the grace of Christ” who make prayer needless, Augustine argues that continence, like wisdom, is God's gift, to be asked for in prayer, though the will must consent.
On the Good of Widowhood 22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · Exhortation works only because God acts within the will; the widows will gain more from their prayers than from Augustine's words.
On the Good of Widowhood 26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · Widows should replace carnal pleasures with reading, prayer, psalms, almsgiving, fasting, and vigils, and beware lest suppressed desire turn into avarice.
Commentary on Jeremiah 2.37Jerome · ca. 414-419 · God forbids Jeremiah to intercede for an unrepentant people, which shows that the saints' prayers can otherwise withstand his anger.
Commentary on Jeremiah 2.103Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Israel and Judah conspired together against God's covenant; in their distress God will not hear them, yet one must never turn to demons as Saul did, but keep praying to the Lord.
Commentary on Jeremiah 2.107Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Jeremiah is again forbidden to intercede: prayer for another avails nothing when the one prayed for is unworthy.
Commentary on Jeremiah 3.29Jerome · ca. 414-419 · The people confess that their sins have brought the drought and appeal to God to save for his name's sake, not for their merit.
Commentary on Jeremiah 3.33Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Fasting, prayers and sacrifices avail only with repentance; for those set on persisting in sin, intercession is useless.
Commentary on Jeremiah 3.42Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Not even Moses and Samuel, great intercessors, could now turn God's sentence from Judah.
Commentary on Jeremiah 5.54Jerome · ca. 414-419 · The priests and people must not believe prophets promising the quick return of the temple vessels; rather the remaining vessels too will go to Babylon until God restores them. A true prophet would intercede, as Moses and Samuel did (Jer 27:16–22).
Commentary on Jeremiah 5.63Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Jeremiah's letter tells the exiles to build, plant, marry, multiply, and pray for Babylon's peace, since their stay will be long; Jeremiah himself was forbidden marriage because of the short time, as Paul says. Spiritually, those cast out of the church should build on rock, take wisdom and the virtues as wives, and seek the church's peace (Jer 29:1–7).
Commentary on Jeremiah 5.65Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Only after seventy years will God bring the exiles home, in answer to their wholehearted prayer; spiritually, after our time of confusion God restores the penitent to the church (Jer 29:10–14).
Commentary on Jeremiah 6.37Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Jeremiah's prayer praises God as Creator, merciful and just, whose strength and arm are Christ and whose delayed punishments give time for repentance; it leads to his question why he must buy a field when the city is lost (Jer 32:16–19).
Commentary on Jeremiah 6.44Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Turning the back on God, not the face, shows contempt, the opposite of the bowed posture of prayer (Jer 32:33).
Chapter 22Anonymous · ca. 414-450 · The author invites Demetrias to examine her heart and recognize all her gifts as God's, and to ask his help in using them, since even right prayer comes from the Spirit.
On Nature and Grace 14Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine agrees that Pelagius' sins are due to his own negligence, but urges him to pray that negligence not rule him, rather than trust his own strength.
On Nature and Grace 16Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine rejects Pelagius' reading of James 3:8 as a rebuke, and teaches that no man can tame the tongue without the help of God's grace, which must be sought in prayer.
On Nature and Grace 17Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine argues from James 3 that the wisdom which tames the tongue comes down from above and must be asked of God in faith, so that the law commands and faith obtains.
On Nature and Grace 19Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine distinguishes ignorance from negligence, which Pelagius blames, from ignorance despite the wish to understand, and urges prayer for understanding.
On Nature and Grace 20Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine observes that Pelagius asks God only for pardon of past sins, never for help not to sin, though the Lord's Prayer asks for both.
On Nature and Grace 28Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine urges prayer rather than disputation with the Pelagians, and explains that Adam's easily avoidable sin was justly punished by the loss of the body's obedience, which we inherit.
On Nature and Grace 39Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine argues that praising nature as healthy rejects the Savior, and that God's mercy is needed not only to pardon past sins but to help us avoid future ones.
On Nature and Grace 41Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine answers Pelagius' question whether the saints died with or without sin: though they did not live without sin, they could die without it through daily forgiveness sought in the Lord's Prayer.
On Nature and Grace 50Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine agrees that man was created able not to sin, but applies the parable of the Good Samaritan to fallen man, who needs healing; God commands to admonish us to do what we can and pray for what we cannot.
On Nature and Grace 62Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine insists that the grace in question is not that of creation but that of salvation through Christ, for which the faithful pray, and notes that Pelagius has now revealed his view.
On Nature and Grace 65Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine argues from Romans 7 that the one crying “Who will deliver me?” seeks not only pardon for past sins but strength for the future, and must not be forbidden to beg Christ's mercy.
On Nature and Grace 68Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine agrees with Pelagius that the devil flees those who resist him, but insists that resistance itself requires prayer for God's help, which the Pelagian stress on the will takes away.
On Nature and Grace 74Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine notes that Ambrose, whom Pelagius cites on Zechariah and Elizabeth, himself teaches in a hymn that the Holy Spirit must be obtained by prayer.
On Nature and Grace 79Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine teaches that love is poured out by the Holy Spirit given by the ascended Christ, and that the necessity of sinning, which comes from nature's faults, is removed by grace in answer to prayer.
On Nature and Grace 80Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine owns the passage of his On Free Choice cited by Pelagius, but explains that sin is avoided only with God's help, sought in the Lord's Prayer both to prevent and to heal it.
On Nature and Grace 82Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine sets out how to exhort Christians: to faith first, then to good works and persevering prayer, confessing that any perfection comes only by the grace of Christ.
On Nature and Grace 83Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine teaches that God's commandments are not impossible but move us to do what is easy and pray for what is hard, and that they become light to love, which is the fulfilling of the law.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Augustine grants that man can be without sin, but asks when and through whom: not in this life, where all must pray “forgive us,” and not by himself, or Christ died in vain.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Our righteousness on pilgrimage is the course of fasting, almsgiving, and prayer toward perfect righteousness; because we still fall short, we rightly pray “forgive us our debts.”
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · The righteous run perfectly but are not yet perfect; the command to love God wholly shows the goal, reached only when desire is gone in the life to come.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Caelestius's texts commanding perfection either urge us to run well or name the goal; one walks “without spot” who runs blamelessly, cleansing daily sins by almsgiving and prayer.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · The commandments are light only to love, which is poured in by the Holy Spirit; Scripture calls them not burdensome so that those who find them heavy will pray for that gift.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · The righteous are found righteous in judgment through forgiveness and almsgiving; to be blameless is possible in this life, to be sinless belongs to Christ alone.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Job's prayer was clean because he forgave truly and so rightly asked forgiveness.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 34Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Texts about the pure in heart are true: the heart is cleansed by faith, discipline, almsgiving, and prayer, and what remains is forgiven by the Judge's mercy.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 36Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · The upright in heart are on the way; the pure in heart have arrived; meanwhile we must forgive so that our heart does not reproach us when we pray.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 40Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Caelestius answers Rom 9:16 with texts on free choice, but by doing so he argues against the mercy we pray for in the Lord's Prayer.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 43Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Caelestius says man can avoid sin if God wills, avoiding “if God helps”; Augustine insists that the Spirit's help heals us progressively until we see God.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 44Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Augustine concludes: no one but Christ has lived without needing forgiveness; he will not fight those who think some saints never consented to sin, but whoever denies the need to pray for grace against temptation is to be anathematized.
Apologetic Book 2.1Orosius · ca. 415–416 · The fathers counter the heresy with Scripture and prayer.
Apologetic Book 13.5Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Man can sin by himself but not free himself.
Apologetic Book 19.7Orosius · ca. 415–416 · God gives the growth.
Apologetic Book 23.4Orosius · ca. 415–416 · David prays to be cleansed of hidden faults.
Apologetic Book 31.9Orosius · ca. 415–416 · The infant asks and receives.
Apologetic Book 32.4Orosius · ca. 415–416 · When weak, then strong.
Apologetic Book 32.5Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Weakness prays always.
Apologetic Book 32.12Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Grace is sufficient.
Apologetic Book 33.2Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Our part is prayer and devotion.
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 1.21.19Orosius · ca. 417–418 · They should pray to the God who gave them peace.
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 2.3.10Orosius · ca. 417–418 · Pray to the God who now spares them; the history of Rome follows.
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 3.3.2Orosius · ca. 417–418 · At Constantinople a similar disaster was averted by prayer.
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 4.17.10Orosius · ca. 417–418 · Only Christian prayer brings rain.
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 6.1.27Orosius · ca. 417–418 · Before the church's prayers, punishments were heavier.
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 7.8.5Orosius · ca. 417–418 · The church prayed even for its persecutors.
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 7.15.9Orosius · ca. 417–418 · The rain miracle.
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 7.35.14Orosius · ca. 417–418 · Theodosius prays on the Alps.
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 7.35.15Orosius · ca. 417–418 · Theodosius advances under the sign of the cross.
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 7.36.5Orosius · ca. 417–418 · Mascezel takes monks with him and prays.
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 7.36.8Orosius · ca. 417–418 · Mascezel advances after prayer and the sacraments.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 26Augustine of Hippo · 417 · Pelagius changed Caelestius's claim that some were without sin before Christ into the harmless claim that some lived holy lives, which the judges approved.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 28Augustine of Hippo · 417 · Pelagius explained that the church is cleansed in baptism and the Lord wishes her to remain so; the bishops approved this, without ruling on the time of prayer between baptism and the kingdom.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 31Augustine of Hippo · 417 · By anathematizing these propositions, Pelagius has in effect confessed a grace given by the Holy Spirit for each act, distinct from nature and law.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 55Augustine of Hippo · 417 · The boast about “ease” contradicts Pelagius's own talk of labor and omits grace; the synod left open whether sinlessness is attainable in this life or only in the resurrection.
Letter 2, chapter 1Zosimus, bishop of Rome · 417–418 · Zosimus opens his letter to the African bishops by stressing that great matters need careful judgment and that the apostolic see seeks peace in the faith.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.45Augustine of Hippo · 418 · In his four books On Free Choice Pelagius speaks of grace only ambiguously, as law, teaching, revelation, and Christ's example, never as help for the will and action.
Sermon to the People of the Church of Caesarea 5Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Augustine recognizes Emeritus’s baptism but asks him to prove love by unity; like the handmaids’ sons whom Rachel and Leah owned, those born outside belong to the one mother if they are not proud like Ishmael.
Sermon to the People of the Church of Caesarea 9Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Augustine takes up the people’s cry “here or nowhere” for Emeritus, wishing him in unity here or elsewhere, and asks for prayer if he does not take communion today.
On the Soul and Its Origin 4.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Not knowing what to pray for, as Paul confessed, matters more than not knowing one’s origin; the Spirit may teach it if it is good for us.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.38Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Baptism, given once, is the ground for the forgiveness of all later sins and will finally cleanse the church of every spot, including concupiscence itself.
The Institutes 2.1John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Cassian turns to the number of psalms and prayers in the monastic night office; the inner quality of prayer is left for the Conferences.
The Institutes 2.2John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Western monasteries follow many different rules for the number of psalms; Cassian proposes the ancient Egyptian practice instead.
The Institutes 2.4John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · The Egyptian monks sing twelve psalms at evening and night, followed by two readings, a rule they say an angel taught.
The Institutes 2.5John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · The first monks of Alexandria, disciples of Mark, disputed how many psalms to sing, until an angel sang twelve and vanished.
The Institutes 2.6John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · The fathers adopted the twelve-psalm rule and added two Scripture readings, both from the New Testament on Saturdays, Sundays, and in Eastertide.
The Institutes 2.7John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · The Egyptian monks pray standing after each psalm, prostrate only briefly, and rise together with the one who concludes the prayer.
The Institutes 2.8John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Unlike the Gallic custom, in the East the Gloria Patri is not sung after each psalm but only after the antiphon.
The Institutes 2.9John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Cassian gives a brief account of prayer here, reserving a fuller one for the Conferences, which will treat the inner life and the hermits.
The Institutes 2.10John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · During the synaxis total silence is kept; prayers are short and frequent, so that the devil cannot distract the praying mind.
The Institutes 2.11John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Psalms are divided into short sections with prayers, sung with understanding rather than haste; no more than four brothers lead the singing.
The Institutes 2.12John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · The monks sit during the psalms because they are worn out by work and fasting, and after the office continue praying in their cells until dawn.
The Institutes 2.13John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · The monks do not go back to sleep after the night office, lest the devil defile them in sleep or drowsiness dull them for the day.
The Institutes 2.14John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Manual work anchors the wandering mind in the cell, so that work and meditation support each other.
The Institutes 2.16John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · No one may pray with a brother suspended from prayer until the abbot publicly reconciles him, since he is delivered to Satan for correction.
The Institutes 2.17John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · The monk who wakes the community must watch the stars for the right hour; on Sundays and in Eastertide the Egyptians neither kneel nor fast.
The Institutes 3.1John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Cassian turns to the day offices of the third, sixth, and ninth hours, following the monasteries of Palestine and Mesopotamia.
The Institutes 3.2John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · In Egypt the monks pray continually while they work, so they hold no public day offices except for Communion on Saturday and Sunday.
The Institutes 3.3John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · The day offices at the third, sixth, and ninth hours commemorate Pentecost, the crucifixion, Peter's vision, the descent to hell, and Cornelius; morning and evening prayer also have scriptural grounds.
The Institutes 3.4John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · The morning office (Prime) was introduced in Cassian's own monastery at Bethlehem to stop monks sleeping until the third hour; it completes seven daily offices.
The Institutes 3.5John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Some Gallic monks wrongly go back to sleep after the morning office; the Egyptians instead watch until daylight.
The Institutes 3.6John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · The new morning office did not alter the night psalms; Psalms 50, 62, and 89 were assigned to it.
The Institutes 3.7John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · A monk late for a day office must wait outside and do penance before he may attend the next; at night he may come as late as the second psalm.
The Institutes 3.8John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · The weekly all-night vigil before the Sabbath ends in time for a short sleep, so that the monks are not tempted to sleep during the day.
The Institutes 3.9John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · The Saturday vigil commemorates the disciples' watch after the crucifixion; in the East the fast is relaxed on Saturday as well as Sunday.
The Institutes 3.11John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · On Sunday a single office with Communion replaces the third and sixth hours, marking the day of the resurrection as a festival.
The Institutes 5.33John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Abba Theodore, nearly unable to speak Greek, understood the Scriptures through purity of heart and once prayed seven days for the answer to a question.
The Institutes 5.35John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Theodore rebuked the young Cassian for sleeping after the evening office; Cassian turns to Archebius's charity, since fasting pleases God only with love.
The Institutes 6.17John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Because chastity is so great a reward, it is fiercely attacked and must be defended by prayer as well as continence.
The Institutes 8.13John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Christ forbids offering prayer while a brother has something against us, so anger held even briefly makes prayer impossible.
The Institutes 8.14John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Christ requires us to seek reconciliation even when a brother holds something against us unjustly, since God wills the salvation of all.
The Institutes 12.6John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Pride is the beginning of all sin and attacks the strongest; even David, though humble, prayed for God's help against it.
The Institutes 12.17John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Since even Christ in his humanity said he did nothing of himself, we must confess our need of God's help in every step, praying with the Psalms.
Commentary on Hosea, Joel and Amos 1.14.2Julian of Eclanum · ca. 420-440 · Israel is to return to God with words of confession, offering the ‘calves of its lips,’ the sacrifice of praise that pleases God more than animals.
Commentary on Hosea, Joel and Amos 2.1.9Julian of Eclanum · ca. 420-440 · Joel calls priests and people to a sanctified fast and lament; Julian distinguishes voluntary fasting from the hunger of famine, explains the ‘day of the Lord’ and the burning of the wilderness as the locust plague, and notes that even the beasts look to God for food.
Commentary on Hosea, Joel and Amos 2.2.5Julian of Eclanum · ca. 420-440 · Joel orders a solemn fast of the whole people and the priests’ prayer ‘Spare your people,’ and promises that their prayers will be heard.
Commentary on Hosea, Joel and Amos 3.5.12Julian of Eclanum · ca. 420-440 · God rejects the feasts, sacrifices, and songs of both Israel and Judah because they are offered without good conduct; his judgment will sweep over them like a torrent.
Commentary on Hosea, Joel and Amos 3.7.1Julian of Eclanum · ca. 420-440 · Amos’s vision of locusts devouring the late crop is explained as a prophetic image; at Amos’s plea for little Jacob, God relents.
Lausiac History 5Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 419-420 · Alexandra shuts herself in a tomb for ten years rather than be a cause of temptation to a man, and tells Melania how she spends her days.
Lausiac History 18Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 419-420 · Macarius of Alexandria, presbyter of the Cells, outdoes every ascetic feat he hears of, visits the tomb of Jannes and Jambres, astonishes Pachomius's monks, heals the sick and possessed, and resists vainglory.
Lausiac History 19Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 419-420 · Moses the Ethiopian, a former slave and robber chief, repents, overcomes long sexual temptation through severe asceticism and Isidore's help, and becomes a presbyter of Scetis.
Lausiac History 20Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 419-420 · Paul of Pherme counts three hundred prayers a day with pebbles; distressed that a virgin says seven hundred, he is told by Macarius that purity, not number, matters.
Lausiac History 31Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 419-420 · The virgin Piamoun, warned by an angel of an armed attack on her village, stops the attackers in their tracks by a night of prayer.
Lausiac History 32Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 419-420 · Palladius describes Pachomius's monasteries at Tabennesi: the angel's bronze tablet of rules, the twenty-four lettered classes, prayers, meals, crafts, and numbers.
Lausiac History 39Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 419-420 · Pior, vowed never to see his family, visits his aged sister with his eyes shut, endures bitter water, and by prayer brings water into a dry well for Moses the Libyan's monastery.
Lausiac History 43Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 419-420 · Adolius of Tarsus stands all night on the Mount of Olives in all weathers, then wakes the brothers for prayer.
Lausiac History 44Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 419-420 · Innocent, presbyter on the Mount of Olives, prays that his sinning son be possessed rather than dissolute, steals for the poor, heals a paralysed demoniac at relics of John the Baptist, and recovers a stolen sheep.
Lausiac History 48Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 419-420 · Elpidius the Cappadocian lives twenty-five years in a cave near Jericho, eating only at weekends, unmoved by a scorpion's sting, gathering a city of monks around him.
Lausiac History 49Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 419-420 · Sisinnius, a former slave and disciple of Elpidius, spends three years praying in a tomb and later leads a community of men and women in Cappadocia.
Lausiac History 60Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 419-420 · A recluse of Antinoe, told by the martyr Colluthus that she will die that day, eats a last meal at his shrine, sends a book of Clement to an exiled bishop, and dies.
Lausiac History 69Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 419-420 · A fallen virgin repents so deeply that after her child's death she serves sick and crippled women for thirty years, and God declares her repentance more pleasing than her virginity.
Lausiac History 70Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 419-420 · A presbyter's daughter falsely accuses an innocent reader of fathering her child; he accepts deposition and marries her, and her labour is released only when he prays.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine explains that concupiscence remaining after baptism is called sin only because it came from sin and inclines to sin, and that its guilt is forgiven in baptism.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.38Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine proves from Chronicles, Ezekiel, and the story of Esther that God works directly on human wills.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 3.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine distinguishes the small righteousness of faith in this life, which merits, from the full righteousness of the resurrection, which is its reward.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine argues that the church, though cleansed in baptism, still prays daily for forgiveness and will be wholly without spot or wrinkle only in glory.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine affirms that the Holy Spirit made the ancient saints good and that they were truly righteous, yet all confessed their sins, and full righteousness is the reward of the life to come.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine quotes Cyprian on the Lord's Prayer, the Testimonies, and On Patience to show that Cyprian ascribed every good to God's grace.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine argues from Cyprian that even avoiding grave sin and converting persecutors depend on grace sought in prayer, without denying free choice.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine quotes Cyprian repeatedly to show that he held no one to be without sin in this life and taught daily prayer for forgiveness.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.30Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine cites Ambrose to show that even the beginning of good thoughts and prayer comes from God's grace, and that the law alone cannot convert the heart.
Life of Porphyry 24Marcus the Deacon · ca. 420-430 · Porphyry's night vigil and procession bring rain after the pagans' prayers to Marnas failed; many pagans believe; Barochas is beaten nearly to death by a pagan farmer and recovers.
Carmina 5.147–176Orientius of Auch · 5th-6th century(?) · The last names of Christ, Eye, Prophet, Angel, Arm, Agios, Emmanuel, Lord Sabaoth, lead into a prayer to the crucified Christ for mercy and protection under the sign of the cross.
Carmina 5.177–179Orientius of Auch · 5th-6th century(?) · The prayer ends asking that the cross protect the house, and that the tower, once stained with sacrilegious blood, now shine with the sign of the cross.
Commonitorium 1.391–420Orientius of Auch · ca. 420-450 · The married and the celibate stand differently before God; against temptation the cross, prayer and tears are the weapons; the poet speaks from experience, and Scripture says that all flesh is grass.
Commonitorium 2.391–418Orientius of Auch · ca. 420-450 · Orientius confesses that he should have taught by his life, promises heaven to those who keep his counsels and believe in the Trinity, and asks every reader to pray for him.
Prayers 1–30Orientius of Auch · 5th-6th century(?) · A litany in which the cherubim, the seven chief angels, the sun, moon and stars, the air and weather, the earth and the ocean each praise God, and the congregation answers with Amen and Alleluia.
Prayers 31–59bOrientius of Auch · 5th-6th century(?) · Even hell and its angels sing the Amen; the poet closes with a prayer of entreaty and a refrain forbidding the serpent, father of lies, to let any letter be added or removed, excusing scribes' slips and warning the philosophers.
Prayers 60–65Orientius of Auch · 5th-6th century(?) · A damaged fragment that ends in a short threefold prayer to the Father and to Christ, the living Son of God and judge.
On Care for the Dead 1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–422 · Augustine explains that Paulinus of Nola asked him whether burial near a saint's shrine helps the dead, prompted by the widow Flora's son Cynegius.
On Care for the Dead 2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–422 · Augustine reconciles prayers for the dead with judgment according to deeds: such help profits only those whose life in the body made them fit to be helped.
On Care for the Dead 3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–422 · Augustine cites Maccabees and the church's custom of commending the dead at the altar, rejects Virgil's belief that the unburied cannot cross the river of the dead, and introduces a passage from The City of God.
On Care for the Dead 6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–422 · Burial at a martyr's shrine helps the dead only by moving the living to commend them in prayer to the martyr, and the church's general prayer for all the faithful departed matters more than the place of burial.
On Care for the Dead 7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–422 · What helps the dead is not the place of burial but the living prayers it prompts, just as bodily gestures of prayer stir up the heart; where burial in a holy place is impossible, prayer must go on.
On Care for the Dead 17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–422 · The rich man's concern for his brothers shows care, not knowledge, and Abraham could have learned of earthly things from Lazarus after his death.
On Care for the Dead 20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–422 · Augustine does not know whether the martyrs help people by their own presence or whether God, hearing their prayers, helps through angels, and leaves the question to those with the gift of discerning spirits.
On Care for the Dead 22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–422 · Only the church's sacrifices, prayers, and alms reach the dead, and only those whose lives made them fit to be helped; burial is a humane duty and a witness to the resurrection, and burial at a martyr's shrine helps only by increasing prayer.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · The Creed and the Lord's Prayer contain faith, hope, and love: faith believes, hope and love pray.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 32Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Even the good will is God's gift: “not of him who wills but of God who shows mercy” means the whole is given to God, whose mercy goes before the unwilling and follows the willing.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 71Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · The Lord's Prayer daily removes light sins, and also forsaken sins, provided we truly forgive others.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 73Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · The greatest alms is forgiving from the heart and loving one's enemies; the petition of the Lord's Prayer is at least fulfilled by those who forgive whoever asks forgiveness.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 74Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Whoever refuses to forgive a repentant offender cannot expect God's forgiveness, as Christ, the Truth, declared.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 78Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · God alone judges which sins are light or grave; Paul's concessions to the weak, on marital intercourse for pleasure and lawsuits between Christians, show these are pardonable sins, for which we pray daily.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 81Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · We sin through ignorance or weakness and need God's help against both, praying for pardon and for guidance: the Lord is our light and salvation.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 103Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · “God wills all men to be saved” means that no one is saved unless God wills it, or that he wills people of every kind to be saved; it cannot mean that God's will fails.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 114Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · From the faith of the Creed springs hope, whose objects are those of the Lord's Prayer, for hope must be placed in God alone.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 115Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Matthew's Lord's Prayer has seven petitions: three for eternal things, begun here and perfected hereafter, and four for the needs of this life.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 116Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Luke's five petitions show how Matthew's seven are to be understood: the third repeats the first two, and deliverance from evil belongs with not being led into temptation.
Discourse 6.69Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plotinus says God helps those who strive, not those who only pray.
Discourse 7.24Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · God asks a sacrifice of praise instead of animals.
Discourse 7.25Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · God accepts praise and repays it with help.
Discourse 7.26Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Other psalms too prefer praise to sacrifice.
Discourse 7.49Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Theodoret urges readers to offer the sacrifice of praise, persuaded by truth.
Discourse 8.10Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Martyrs' souls are in heaven; their relics are honored and their intercession sought.
Discourse 8.51Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plato's Laws says the souls of the dead care for human affairs.
Discourse 8.63Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Christians visit martyrs' shrines, praying to God and asking the martyrs' intercession.
Discourse 8.69Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Martyrs' feasts have replaced pagan festivals and are kept soberly.
Discourse 9.62Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Paul allows abstinence for prayer only for a time, lest Satan tempt.
Book 2, lines 25–48Claudius Marius Victor · ca. 425-430 · Hunger drives Adam and Eve to eat wild roots until in their extremity they turn to God, and Adam begins a prayer recalling how in paradise he saw that God cannot be seen.
Book 2, lines 49–71Claudius Marius Victor · ca. 425-430 · Adam confesses that the devil overcame Eve by cunning and him through his love for her, and says that he so repented that he accepted his condemnation as a gift and a kind of pardon.
Book 2, lines 72–94Claudius Marius Victor · ca. 425-430 · Adam asks not that the sentence be lifted but that God teach them how to till the cursed ground; as they pray, they catch sight of the serpent.
Sermon 21Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · This passage holds two sermons: on the storm in Mark 4, Chrysologus reads Christ's sleep in the boat as a test of the Church amid heresy and invasion and urges watchful prayer; Sermon 22 (Luke 12:32–37) urges giving up earthly wealth for the kingdom and keeping watch for the Lord.
Sermon 39Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · On the friend at midnight (Luke 11:5–10), Chrysologus describes God's eagerness to be prevailed upon, urges persistent and watchful prayer and hospitality, rebukes those who sleep through morning prayer, and closes by welcoming a visiting bishop whom he credits with supplying his sermon.
Sermon 43Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · In a famous plain-spoken sermon, Chrysologus teaches that prayer, fasting, and mercy are three in one, each giving life to the others, illustrates their power from Moses, Elijah, and John, rebukes neglect of morning prayer in church, and insists that fasting bears fruit only when watered by mercy.
Sermon 45Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · On Psalm 6, Chrysologus explains that God's ‘anger’ is not passion but punishment, presents David as frail humanity pleading for mercy and longing for Christ's coming, and urges his hearers, amid famine, plague, and invasion, to repent with tears.
Sermon 67Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Handing the Lord's Prayer to candidates for baptism, Chrysologus explains each petition and distinguishes Christ's sonship by nature from theirs by grace.
Sermon 68Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Chrysologus explains the Lord's Prayer to candidates for baptism through Habakkuk's trembling at God's report; the passage also contains Sermon 69, which surveys God's condescension from Noah to the cross and begins explaining the Prayer again.
Sermon 70Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Chrysologus explains the Lord's Prayer to candidates for baptism, stressing the boldness of calling God Father and reading the bread as Christ received at the altar.
Sermon 71Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Chrysologus tells the candidates that the threefold confession of the Trinity has made them God's sons, explains each petition, and urges patient hope, since they have received the promise and not yet the reality.
Sermon 72Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Chrysologus speaks of the awe of calling God Father, addresses the candidates as children still in the womb of the virgin church, and briefly explains each petition of the Lord's Prayer.
Sermon 132Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Arguing that God hides meaning in Scripture as nature hides gold, Chrysologus expounds Christ's promise to those who agree in prayer (Matt 18:19–20) to defend common worship against those who prefer solitary prayer, and to warn that life is found only in the unity of the Church, Christ's body.
3.13Philostorgius · ca. 425-433 · Philostorgius claims Flavian of Antioch first introduced the doxology “Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.”
3.23Philostorgius · ca. 425-433 · Bishop James of Nisibis saves the city from Shapur's siege.
5.2Philostorgius · ca. 425-433 · Aetius is moved to Amblada, where, Philostorgius claims, he ended a plague by prayer.
Book 2, lines 229–254Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · God chose the lowly; Christ taught the brief Lord's Prayer: calling God Father makes believers brothers and adopted sons; his name is hallowed by pure hearts; and his kingdom is the endless day of Christ's reign.
Book 2, lines 255–278Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · The Lord's Prayer continued: God's will be done on earth as in heaven; our daily bread is Christ, Word and food; and we must forgive our debtors, as the parable of the unforgiving servant warns.
Book 2, lines 279–300Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · God leads no one into temptation but abandons those who love the world's snares; the narrow way leads to the kingdom, the right-hand path to Abraham's bosom, the left to hell; Book 2 ends with the flock escaping the wolf.
Book 4, lines 198–221Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · Of the ten lepers healed, only one returns to give thanks, presenting himself to Christ, the true high priest after the order of Melchizedek who offers bread and wine; blind Bartimaeus, crying out persistently, receives his sight, like the friend who gets bread at midnight by persistence.
Book 2, section 16Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · Christ called humble fishermen to be fishers of men, for God chooses the foolish and weak of the world; he also taught a brief prayer, addressed to God as Father, his by nature and ours by grace.
Book 2, section 17Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · Sedulius expounds the Lord's Prayer petition by petition: God is our Father by grace as Christ's by nature, making us brothers; his name is hallowed in pure hearts; his kingdom is endless day; his will defeats the devil; our daily bread is food, God's word and Christ's body; we are forgiven as we forgive; God leads no one into temptation but abandons the disobedient; and we ask to be delivered from evil to the right-hand path of the saved.
Book 4, section 17Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · Blind Bartimaeus, crying out persistently, receives his sight; persistent prayer obtains what seems impossible, as the friend at midnight obtained bread by his importunity.
On Grace and Free Will 4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 426 · Lest free choice be so defended that grace is excluded, Augustine shows that continence, marital chastity, and victory over desire are both God's gifts and acts of the will, obtained by prayer.
On Grace and Free Will 13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 426 · Grace is neither the law nor human nature, nor merely the forgiveness of past sins; the Lord's Prayer and Cyprian's treatise on it show that we must pray for help to avoid and overcome sin.
On Grace and Free Will 14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 426 · Against the claim that grace is given for the merit of a good will, Augustine shows that faith itself is God's gift and that God, as Ezekiel says, takes away the heart of stone for his name's sake, not for prior merits.
On Grace and Free Will 16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 426 · God commands things we cannot do so that we may ask for them; Ecclesiasticus itself, after “If you will, you will keep the commandments”, prays for help, for God prepares the will and makes us act.
On Grace and Free Will 24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 426 · Augustine urges the monks to reread the book, to pray for understanding and for the wisdom that comes from above, and to pray for him.
The Conferences 1.8John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Martha and Mary show that the highest good is contemplation of God, to which all other virtues, however good, are secondary, and which alone will never be taken away.
The Conferences 1.12John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Germanus asks how anyone in the flesh can remain constantly fixed on contemplation of the invisible God.
The Conferences 1.13John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Constant contemplation is impossible in the flesh, but the mind must keep returning to God; the kingdom of God is within, as righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
The Conferences 2.22John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · The general rule is to eat what the body needs, not what appetite wants; alternating between fasting and overeating harms prayer and chastity.
The Conferences 2.26John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Moses advises keeping one biscuit for the evening to share with any visitor, so that both abstinence and hospitality are kept; Cassian closes the first two conferences.
The Conferences 4.2John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Cassian and Germanus ask Daniel why their prayer sometimes overflows with joy and at other times, for no reason, turns dry and sad.
The Conferences 4.3John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Spiritual dryness has three causes: our negligence, the devil's attack, or God's testing.
The Conferences 4.4John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · God withdraws his consolation to keep us humble, showing that joy in prayer is his gift, and to test our perseverance so that we guard it better when it returns.
The Conferences 4.5John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Grace alone works what is good in us; when it withdraws, effort cannot restore the former state, yet it also visits the negligent and unworthy to rouse them.
The Conferences 5.14John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Each monk should find his dominant vice and fight it first with fasting, prayer, and tears, relying on God, then move to the next, like a beast-fighter who kills the strongest first.
The Conferences 7.2John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · After long prayer, Serenus received from an angel in a vision the removal of all bodily sexual stirring; Cassian and Germanus visit him in Lent and complain about their wandering thoughts.
The Conferences 7.3John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Cassian and Germanus complain that years in the desert have taught them only what they cannot be: their minds slip away from contemplation like eels, and they begin to think the fault lies in human nature.
The Conferences 7.6John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Clinging to God is possible for those who die to worldly desires; the labor must not be abandoned, for the kingdom suffers violence, and only those who taste God's being all in all now will possess it fully hereafter.
The Conferences 7.21John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Demons too labor and suffer shame in defeat; the psalms that curse enemies must be read as prayers against these spiritual foes, not against human beings, whom the saints loved.
The Conferences 7.23John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · The demons are less violent than in the early days of the desert, either because of the power of the cross or because monks' negligence makes fierce attacks unnecessary; some monks must be coaxed just to stay in their cells.
The Conferences 7.27John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Abba Moses of Calamus, for one harsh word to Macarius, was briefly given over to a demon, but was freed at once by Macarius' prayer, showing it was a purifying chastisement.
The Conferences 7.30John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · The possessed should be prayed for as fellow members; the Egyptian elders never barred them from communion but would give it daily, since the sacrament drives out the demon.
The Conferences 8.18John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Two philosophers sent ever stronger demons against Antony by magic, but the sign of the cross and prayer repelled them all, proving the power of the Christian profession.
The Conferences 9.1John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Cassian introduces the two conferences of Abba Isaac on unceasing prayer, fulfilling a promise made in the Institutes, and dedicates them to Leontius and Helladius in memory of Castor.
The Conferences 9.2John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Isaac teaches that unceasing prayer is the monk’s goal and is bound up with all the virtues, which must be built like a tower on the foundation of humility and simplicity.
The Conferences 9.3John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Pure prayer requires first cutting away worldly cares, idle talk, anger, sadness, lust, and avarice, laying the foundation of humility, and preparing the mind beforehand, since whatever occupies it before prayer returns during prayer.
The Conferences 9.4John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · The soul is like a light feather that rises naturally unless it is weighed down by the moisture of vices and worldly cares, so the mind must be purified for prayer to rise to God.
The Conferences 9.6John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · An elder sees a demon driving a brother on in useless building work; freedom from worldly ambition is shown by refusing even small, respectable-seeming things, and the mind so purified turns everything into pure prayer.
The Conferences 9.7John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Germanus asks why good thoughts are easily conceived but not kept, sets that question aside for later, and asks what prayer should be and how it can be unceasing.
The Conferences 9.8John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Isaac explains that prayer takes as many forms as the soul has states, changing with joy, sorrow, temptation, repentance, fear, hope, danger, peace, illumination, or dryness.
The Conferences 9.9John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Isaac turns to the four kinds of prayer named by Paul in 1 Timothy 2:1 and asks what each means and whether they are offered together, in turn, or by different people according to their progress.
The Conferences 9.10John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Isaac sets out three questions about the four kinds of prayer, insisting that the Holy Spirit did not arrange the apostle’s order without reason.
The Conferences 9.11John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Supplication is a plea for pardon of one’s sins, past or present.
The Conferences 9.12John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · “Prayer” in Paul’s list means a vow offered to God, as the Greek word euchē shows; monks make such vows in renouncing the world and promising chastity and patience, and are guilty if they do not keep them.
The Conferences 9.13John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Intercessions are prayers offered for others, for loved ones, for the peace of the world, and for rulers.
The Conferences 9.14John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Thanksgivings are offered in rapture when the mind recalls God’s past, present, and promised benefits.
The Conferences 9.15John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Each of the four kinds can produce fervent prayer and suits a different stage of progress, but a purified mind may combine them all in one flaming, wordless prayer, and even a beginner’s compunction can be as fervent as a saint’s joy.
The Conferences 9.16John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · One should aim at the higher kinds of prayer born of contemplation and love, but reach them step by step through prayers for virtues and against vices.
The Conferences 9.17John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Christ gave examples of all four kinds of prayer, singly and combined in his great prayer in John 17, and Paul in Philippians shows they can be offered together.
The Conferences 9.18John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Above the four kinds of prayer is the loving, familiar converse of sons with their Father, taught in the opening of the Lord’s Prayer, whose first petition seeks the Father’s glory above one’s own, as Paul, Micah, and Moses did.
The Conferences 9.19John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · The petition “Thy kingdom come” asks either for Christ’s present reign in the soul through the virtues or for the future kingdom promised to the saints, which only a good conscience can desire.
The Conferences 9.20John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · “Thy will be done” asks that people on earth may do God’s will as the angels do, trusting his providence in all things, or that all may be saved, since that is God’s will.
The Conferences 9.21John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · “Our supersubstantial” or “daily” bread is spiritual food above all creatures, needed every day, and it must be received in this life if one is to share it in the next.
The Conferences 9.22John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · The petition for forgiveness lets us set the measure of God’s judgment on ourselves, so whoever will not forgive others asks for his own condemnation, and it is vain to skip these words when the prayer is said in church.
The Conferences 9.23John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · “Lead us not into temptation” asks not to be spared all testing but not to be overcome in it, as Job, Abraham, and Joseph were tested without consenting.
The Conferences 9.24John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · The Lord’s Prayer asks for nothing temporal, and to ask God for perishable things instead of eternal ones insults his generosity.
The Conferences 9.25John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · The Lord’s Prayer leads the soul beyond words to a rare, fiery, wordless prayer poured out in a moment, of which Christ’s solitary and agonized prayers are the pattern.
The Conferences 9.26John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Compunction, which kindles fervent prayer, can arise from many occasions: a psalm verse, a brother’s chanting, an elder’s exhortation, a death, or the memory of one’s own negligence.
The Conferences 9.27John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Compunction shows itself sometimes in cries of joy, sometimes in stunned silence and wordless groaning, and sometimes in tears.
The Conferences 9.28John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Germanus says he has known joyful tears of compunction but cannot summon them at will and grieves when his eyes stay dry.
The Conferences 9.30John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Forced tears are not wholly useless for beginners, but those advanced in virtue should not strain after them, since they drag the mind down from contemplation.
The Conferences 9.31John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Isaac cites Antony, who rebuked the rising sun for interrupting his prayer and taught that prayer is perfect only when the monk is not even aware that he is praying.
The Conferences 9.32John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · A sign that prayer is heard is untroubled confidence while praying that one has received what one asks, according to Christ’s promise.
The Conferences 9.33John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Germanus asks how sinners without merits can have confidence that their prayers will be heard.
The Conferences 9.34John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Isaac lists many grounds on which prayer is heard, above all persevering importunity, which anyone can offer; delays should not discourage, but confidence applies to what accords with God’s will, so every prayer should end, as Christ’s did, “not as I will, but as you will.”
The Conferences 9.35John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Christ’s command to pray in one’s inner room with the door shut means praying silently from a heart withdrawn from all distractions, so as not to disturb others and to hide one’s petition even from the demons.
The Conferences 9.36John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Isaac advises frequent but brief prayer as the true sacrifice of a contrite heart; Cassian and Germanus leave for the night, planning to return to learn how unceasing prayer is acquired.
The Conferences 10.3John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · The venerable Sarapion, persuaded by the deacon Photinus that God’s image is spiritual and not bodily, accepted the catholic faith but wept in prayer that his God had been taken from him; Cassian and Germanus return to Isaac.
The Conferences 10.4John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Cassian and Germanus ask Isaac why Sarapion fell into his error and how they themselves can attain the prayer he described.
The Conferences 10.5John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Isaac traces Sarapion’s error to the habits of paganism, which worshiped gods in human shape; the Anthropomorphites misread Genesis 1:26, whereas pure prayer admits no image, word, or form at all.
The Conferences 10.6John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · According to its purity the mind in prayer sees Jesus either in his humility or in his glory; the glory is shown, as at the Transfiguration, to those who withdraw with him to the mountain of solitude, as he himself withdrew to pray.
The Conferences 10.7John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Perfection is the fulfilment of Christ’s prayer in John 17, when all a person’s love, thought, and life become God and the whole of life becomes one continual prayer, a foretaste of heaven.
The Conferences 10.8John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Germanus asks for a simple starting point, like the alphabet for a child, a fixed formula to which the wandering mind can always return in order to keep God continually in remembrance.
The Conferences 10.9John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Isaac praises the question as a sign of progress and agrees to disclose what he had held back in the first conference.
The Conferences 10.10John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Isaac gives the verse “O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me” as the formula for continual remembrance of God, shows how it fits every temptation and every consolation, and urges that it be repeated at all times, even in sleep.
The Conferences 10.11John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Holding to this one verse makes the monk poor in spirit, a beggar before God; from there he rises to the mysteries of Scripture, praying the psalms as if he had written them from his own experience, and reaches pure, wordless prayer.
The Conferences 10.12John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Germanus welcomes the verse as perfection itself and asks how to keep hold of it steadily.
The Conferences 10.13John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Germanus describes how the mind drifts from text to text and cannot attend even during the office, and asks how to keep the verse steadily.
The Conferences 10.14John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Isaac names vigils, meditation, and prayer, supported by work and freedom from cares, as what steadies the mind; Cassian reflects that the single-verse method proved harder than it looked but is open to the unlearned.
The Conferences 12.4John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Ascetic labors are necessary but cannot by their own merit produce lasting chastity, which is God’s gift; the monk must desire it passionately, credit it to God’s protection, and guard it by humble prayer.
The Conferences 14.12John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Cassian confesses that the poems and war stories of his classical education return to his mind even in prayer, and despairs of being rid of them.
The Conferences 16.16John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Christ refuses our prayers until we have reconciled with a brother who has anything, even trivial, against us; to excuse ourselves from this command is to make ourselves judges of the law.
The Conferences 19.4John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · John tells how in the desert he was often so rapt in contemplation that he forgot whether he had eaten, so that monks counted out a week’s loaves to keep track of the days.
The Conferences 20.6John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Germanus objects that remembering one’s sins seems necessary for compunction, tears, and humility, and says he deliberately recalls his.
The Conferences 20.8John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Pinufius lists the many means of forgiveness after baptism and martyrdom, among them love, almsgiving, tears, confession, affliction, amendment, the prayers of the saints, converting others, forgiving others, and above all God’s mercy, and urges mortification.
The Conferences 21.11John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Cassian and Germanus ask Theonas why Egyptian monks do not kneel or fast until the ninth hour during the fifty days after Easter.
The Conferences 21.20John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Theonas explains that the ten days between Ascension and Pentecost complete the fifty days foreshadowed by the Feast of Weeks, and that like Sundays they exclude fasting and kneeling as signs of mourning.
The Conferences 21.26John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Monks offer God daily first fruits by giving him their first waking thoughts, words, and movements in prayer before anything else, and must guard these morning moments from the devil’s suggestions.
The Conferences 21.35John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Germanus asks why bodily struggles and nocturnal emissions sometimes grow worse during strict fasting, leaving monks ashamed to pray.
The Conferences 23.5John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Even good works, like caring for the poor or Paul’s manual labor, distract from contemplation; Paul longed to depart and be with Christ, and no saint can keep his mind always fixed on God, even in prayer.
The Conferences 23.6John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Like a keen-sighted man who sees the countless small objects in a house that a bleary-eyed man misses, the saints see and condemn in themselves even small distractions in prayer, which the careless do not notice.
The Conferences 23.7John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Ignorant of true sinlessness, we notice only crimes punished by secular law and feel no compunction for dejection, vainglory, distraction in prayer, impure thoughts and dreams, or grudging almsgiving.
The Conferences 23.8John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · The saints treat even a moment’s distraction from God as a sacrilege and repent at once; yet no one but Christ has kept his mind fixed on God without ever straying.
The Conferences 23.16John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · The “body of death” is what drags the perfect from contemplation to earthly thoughts even in prayer, and Paul’s “I myself” shows he speaks of his own experience.
The Conferences 23.18John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · The Lord’s Prayer, given to the saints, requires all to ask forgiveness daily; so no one is sinless, yet the righteous remain righteous.
The Conferences 23.19John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Anyone who claims sinlessness should test it by whether he has kept even one synaxis without a single distraction; the purer the mind, the more faults it sees, and John says that claiming to have no sin is self-deception.
The Conferences 24.10John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Germanus concedes the point but asks what harm there would be in letting relatives supply their needs so they could give themselves wholly to reading and prayer.
On Rebuke and Grace 2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 427 · Grace not only shows what is good but enables us to do it with love; Paul admonished and rebuked, yet prayed for his hearers, knowing God gives the increase.
On Rebuke and Grace 6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 427 · Those who fall away after receiving faith cannot plead that perseverance was not given them: they lost grace by their own will; yet perseverance is God's gift, as Scripture and Cyprian's exposition of the Lord's Prayer show, and rebuke remains useful.
On Rebuke and Grace 16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 427 · Rebuke must not be neglected, for the watchman is answerable; since we cannot tell who is predestined, we rebuke all with love, while praying for the grace by which what is commanded is done.
In Praise of the Desert 26Eucherius of Lyon · ca. 427-428 · Jesus prayed in desert places, showing that the desert is the place of prayer.
In Praise of the Desert 37Eucherius of Lyon · ca. 427-428 · The silence of the desert stirs the mind to God, broken only by the monks' hymns.
On the Predestination of the Saints 8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Coming to Christ is believing, and is given by the Father's inward teaching; God teaches all who come, out of mercy, and those he does not teach are not taught by judgment; faith, begun and completed, is God's gift, given to some and not others by his just and hidden judgment.
On the Predestination of the Saints 20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Paul's prayers for an “open door” and the opening of Lydia's heart show that the beginning of faith is God's gift; God inclines human wills not only for earthly kingdoms but for the kingdom of heaven.
Instructions 1.61Eucherius of Lyon · ca. 428-434 · “Confess” in Scripture often means to praise or thank God, not to repent.
On the Gift of Perseverance 2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Perseverance, like suffering for Christ, is God's gift; it is asked for in prayer, as Cyprian's exposition of the Lord's Prayer (“Hallowed be your name”, “Your kingdom come”) shows, and Cyprian refuted the Pelagians in advance.
On the Gift of Perseverance 3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Commenting on “Your will be done on earth as in heaven” with Cyprian, Augustine shows that the church prays both for the beginning of faith in unbelievers and for perseverance in the saints.
On the Gift of Perseverance 4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Cyprian's exposition of “Give us this day our daily bread”, received daily in the Eucharist, shows that the petition also asks for perseverance, so as not to be separated from Christ's body.
On the Gift of Perseverance 5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Only the petition for forgiveness does not ask for perseverance, yet Cyprian's exposition of it refutes the Pelagian claim of sinlessness; “Lead us not into temptation” asks for perseverance.
On the Gift of Perseverance 6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Answering the objection that perseverance must be able to be merited by prayer and lost by obstinacy, Augustine argues that perseverance to the end, once given, cannot be lost, and that “Lead us not into temptation” asks God to keep us from the temptation of our own evil will.
On the Gift of Perseverance 7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · The Lord's Prayer alone proves the cause of grace: since Adam's fall both coming to God and not departing from him are God's work, which the church acknowledges in its daily prayers for unbelievers and believers.
On the Gift of Perseverance 16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Truth may sometimes be withheld from the incapable, but predestination must be preached where its denial leads the capable into error; grace anticipates the will and therefore faith, obedience, and love.
On the Gift of Perseverance 17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Perseverance is given by God, who can end a life before a fall; predestination is God's arranging of his future works in his foreknowledge; preaching it no more hinders exhortation to faith and perseverance than preaching that wisdom and continence are God's gifts hinders exhortation to them.
On the Gift of Perseverance 22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Predestination should be preached pastorally: addressed to the church as believers, speaking of those who will not persevere in the third person, urging prayer for the uncalled, and teaching hope in God rather than oneself, not in the harsh second-person form proposed by the objectors.
On the Gift of Perseverance 23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · The church's constant prayers for the conversion of unbelievers and the perseverance of believers show that it has always believed in grace and predestination; even prayer itself is the Spirit's gift.
On the Gift of Perseverance 24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Augustine concludes that both the beginning of faith and perseverance are God's gifts, urges prayer rather than dispute, and presents Christ, whose humanity was united to the Word without prior merit, as the supreme example of predestination; he invites correction.
Lines 961–979Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 429-432 · The poem ends with a prayer: God crowns his own gifts, yet this does not make human effort idle, since without him the will only strays; may our choice proceed from his help, and his will be done in us as a true sabbath rest.
On the Incarnation of the Lord, against Nestorius 0.5John Cassian · ca. 430–431 · He asks Leo to pray that his weakness may not discredit Leo’s choice of him.
On the Incarnation of the Lord, against Nestorius 6.2John Cassian · ca. 430–431 · Cassian likens his five books to the five barley loaves and adds two more as the two fish, praying that they may feed and heal the church.
On the Incarnation of the Lord, against Nestorius 7.1John Cassian · ca. 430–431 · Opening the last book, Cassian prays to Christ for strength to crush the serpent of heresy and to purify the minds it has infected, so that all may confess him true man and always true God.
On the Incarnation of the Lord, against Nestorius 7.31John Cassian · ca. 430–431 · Cassian, ordained by John Chrysostom, urges the people of Constantinople to separate from Nestorius and follow their former bishops, and closes with a prayer that the humility of the incarnation may increase love for God.
Celestine, ACO I.2, letter 7.5Celestine I, bishop of Rome · 430-432 · Celestine reminds the council of Paul's charge to the Ephesian elders, urges unity in love and prayer, and announces his legates, Arcadius, Projectus, and Philip.
Verses on the Birthday of the Maccabees 121–150Hilary of Arles · ca. 430-449 · The mother exhorts the third son, who prays and dies in the fire; she resolves that none of her sons will be spared the contest.
Verses on the Birthday of the Maccabees 301–330Hilary of Arles · ca. 430-449 · The sixth son dies; the mother, prostrate, prays to God the Creator, recalling creation and the exodus.
Verses on the Birthday of the Maccabees 331–360Hilary of Arles · ca. 430-449 · The mother's prayer recalls the water from the rock and asks that her youngest not fail; she begins to exhort him.
Verses on the Birthday of the Maccabees 361–390Hilary of Arles · ca. 430-449 · The mother promises her youngest son eternal peace in the kingdom to come and pleads with him not to remain alone; he turns to God in prayer.
Sermon on the Life of Honoratus 9Hilary of Arles · ca. 430 · Honoratus's elder brother Venantius joined him, and the two vied in asceticism and hospitality, so that their home became a school even for bishops.
Sermon on the Life of Honoratus 23Hilary of Arles · ca. 430 · Hilary tells how Honoratus came back to their homeland to win him for Christ, and how, after resisting, he was converted through Honoratus's prayers.
Sermon on the Life of Honoratus 31Hilary of Arles · ca. 430 · Honoratus rebuked Hilary's weeping and said that great men suffer much to teach others to suffer.
Sermon on the Life of Honoratus 38Hilary of Arles · ca. 430 · Honoratus delighted in prayer and psalms even in sleep, longed for martyrdom, and taught the Trinity with great clarity.
Sermon on the Life of Honoratus 39Hilary of Arles · ca. 430 · Hilary closes by asking Honoratus, now with the Lamb, to intercede for his church.
Oration 2.1Proclus of Constantinople · ca. 430-446 · Proclus praises the healing power of psalmody and David's witness to the Trinity, and turns Psalm 104's “How magnified are your works” against Arius, Eunomius, Macedonius, and Nestorius.
Section 3Theodotus of Ancyra · 431 · Theodotus calls the congregation to praise God the Word and his Mother, and takes up Gabriel's greeting in a string of salutations to Mary.
Psalm 118, AlephProsper of Aquitaine · after 432, before 455 · The opening of Psalm 119 (118) is read of the blessedness of those who walk in God's law, the saints' daily need of forgiveness, and their need of grace to keep his commands.
Psalm 118, IodProsper of Aquitaine · after 432, before 455 · Psalm 119:73–80 (118) is read of God's creation and re-creation of man, Christ praying in his body the church, and the heart made spotless by baptism, the Spirit, and the Lord's Prayer.
Psalm 140Prosper of Aquitaine · after 432, before 455 · Psalm 141 (140) is read of Christ's evening sacrifice on the cross, the guarding of the mouth from excusing sin (as astrologers do), and the martyrs who triumphed while the lapsed fell.
Psalm 141Prosper of Aquitaine · after 432, before 455 · Psalm 142 (141) is read as the persecuted church's secret prayer to God, refusing flight that would mean denial and hoping for release from the body's corruption.
Epigram 6: De vera * Dei laudationeProsper of Aquitaine · ca. 435-450 · Praise of God is true only when heart and mouth agree; to speak well and live badly is to condemn oneself.
Epigram 38: De lege charitatisProsper of Aquitaine · ca. 435-450 · The law of Christ is love, and the Lord's Prayer shows that those who forgive others will be forgiven, since God judges us by our own measure.
Epigram 92: De non desperandis pecca toribus (Migne also numbers it LXXXIX)Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 435-450 · We must not despair of the wicked but pray for their conversion; and (Epigram 93) wisdom and spiritual defenses must be gained in times of peace, since they are hard to acquire in trouble.
Epigram 95: De remediis tribulationum (Migne also numbers it XCII)Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 435-450 · God sometimes mercifully refuses prayers for earthly needs, as a physician knows better than the patient; in calamities the faithful should accept his chastisement and pray, and repent.
Epigram 97: Nullam mali esse naturam (Migne also numbers it XCIV)Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 435-450 · Evil is not a nature made by God but a turning of the free will from right order; and (Epigram 98) when God refuses a wrong request, his refusal is mercy.
Book 1, chapter 12Anonymous · ca. 440-450 · The author accepts 1 Tim 2:1–6 in full and interprets it by the Church’s universal practice of praying for all, unbelievers, Jews, persecutors, heretics and schismatics, that they may be converted by grace.
Book 2, chapter 3Anonymous · ca. 440-450 · Christ first forbade the apostles to go to the gentiles and the Spirit kept them from Asia and Bithynia; such delays of grace, also seen in families and cities, have hidden causes, though the Church prays daily for all.
Book 2, chapter 28Anonymous · ca. 440-450 · Grace gives the will to obey without removing its changeableness, so that even saints must watch and pray, as Peter’s denial and his fear before martyrdom show; those who persevere stand by God’s help yet have merit, and those who refuse grace resist by their own obstinacy.
Book 2, chapter 36Anonymous · ca. 440-450 · Tobit shows that election does not make prayer pointless: Sarah was destined for Tobias before the ages, yet they were told to pray; God’s purpose is fulfilled through prayer, works and virtues, and the saved are crowned also for their merits.
Book 2, chapter 37Anonymous · ca. 440-450 · The work ends: no one can be declared elect before death, so all must fear and none despair; the Church must keep praying for believers’ perseverance and unbelievers’ conversion, for God, who wills all to come to the truth, rejects no one unjustly.
To the Church 2.26Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · A true widow must cling to God and prayer, not merely avoid luxury.
Psalm 3:5Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 3:4: the "cry" is the eagerness of the soul, as with Moses' silent prayer; the "holy mountain" reflects the old belief that God dwelt in the tabernacle.
Psalm 4:2Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 4:1: God heard David's just request at once, and in affliction gave him comfort, as he did Paul.
Psalm 4:3Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 4:1b: the righteous never tire of prayer.
Psalm 5:2–3Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 5:1–2: the church and the faithful soul survive by constant prayer; God's ears and the "cry" are figures for his hearing and the soul's eagerness.
Psalm 5:4–5Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 5:3–5: the church stands before God at dawn with confidence, as Elijah did, because God rejects lawlessness.
Psalm 16:1Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 17:1 (Greek 16): pursued by Saul, David asks God to hear his just request, made sincerely.
Psalm 16:6Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 17:6–7: God has heard David before; his mercy to the wronged will make many praise him.
Psalm 17:4Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 18:3: give thanks for past gifts and ask for what is still needed.
Psalm 17:7Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 18:6: God heard David from his "temple," meaning heaven, since Solomon's temple was not yet built.
Psalm 17:35Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 18:34: David's hands are trained for war by being stretched out in prayer.
Psalm 19:2–3Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 20:1–2: the people pray that Hezekiah's petition in the temple be heard.
Psalm 24:1Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 25:1–5: David, beset by enemies, entrusts himself to God, distinguishes weakness from deliberate lawlessness, and asks to be taught God's ways.
Psalm 26:6Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 27:6: Aquila shows the verse is future: David will triumph and offer, through the churches, the sacrifice of praise rather than the sacrifices of the law.
Psalm 27:1Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 28:1: David, betrayed by informers while fleeing Saul, begs God not to be silent and leave him to death.
Psalm 27:2Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 28:2: David prays toward the tabernacle as Daniel prayed toward Jerusalem, not because God is confined there.
Psalm 31:6Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 32:6: in the new covenant all believers pray David's words, and those who pray earnestly are kept above the floods of misfortune.
Psalm 32:2–3Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 33:2–3: the instruments of the law's worship are, spiritually understood, ourselves, made an instrument to praise God with every sense.
Psalm 34:13Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 35:13: David met his troubles with sackcloth, fasting, and prayer, and received what he asked.
Psalm 41:9Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 42:8: the exile praises God day and night for his constant mercy and prays to receive it.
Psalm 42:2Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 43:2: the pious exiles, innocent of the others' sins yet sharing their fate, pray for all.
Psalm 43:26Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 44:26: the Spirit taught the Maccabees beforehand how to pray, and by such prayer they won back their people's freedom.
Psalm 46:7–9Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 47:6–8: the nations are called to praise God the King, enthroned as Hebrews says, and to sing with understanding.
Psalm 47:4Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 48:3: the palaces are the many local churches throughout the world, which make up the one catholic church united in true doctrine.
Psalm 53:4Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 54:2: David asks God to hear his prayer kindly.
Psalm 54:2–3Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 55:1–3: David, troubled by the plots of an enemy he had benefited, begs God to hear him.
Psalm 54:17Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 55:16: the psalmist cried to God and was heard; an added note sees prayer to both Father and Son.
Psalm 54:18Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 55:17: the psalmist prays at evening, morning, and noon.
Psalm 60:1Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 61, title: the psalm continues the previous one, teaching the captives how to pray.
Psalm 60:2Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 61:1: the captives ask God to hear their prayer, words fit for anyone in trouble.
Psalm 62:5Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 63:4: David will bless God and lift his hands in prayer all his life.
Psalm 63:2Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 64:1: David asks God to hear him and free him from fear of the enemy.
Psalm 65:17Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 66:17: God answered at once, and the psalmist's tongue broke into thanksgiving.
Psalm 65:18Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 66:18: the psalmist's prayer was heard because he harbored no plan of injustice.
Psalm 65:19Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 66:19: God heard the psalmist because his intentions were pure.
Psalm 65:20Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 66:20: the psalmist blesses God for hearing his prayer and showing mercy.
Psalm 68:4Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 69:3: the exiles are worn out with crying to God and waiting for his help.
Psalm 68:14Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 69:13: the exiles pray that the time of punishment end and God show mercy.
Psalm 69:2Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 70:1: David asks God to hurry to help him.
Psalm 69:6Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 70:5: poor in virtue, David asks God, his helper, to come without delay.
Psalm 71:3Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 72:3: the mountains receiving peace are fulfilled in the monks on the heights who pray for mankind.
Psalm 76:2Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 77:1: the psalmist cried to God and was heard.
Psalm 76:3Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 77:2-3: in affliction the psalmist prayed through the night, refused comfort but in God, and grew faint in his musings.
Psalm 79:5Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 80:4: the people ask how long God will be angry at their prayers.
Psalm 83:8Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 84:7: the godly, like ascetics, go from strength to strength; God the Word appeared first in Zion.
Psalm 85:1Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 86, title and verse 1: David's prayer, which also foretells Hezekiah's plight and the nations' calling, opens humbly, confessing human poverty.
Psalm 85:3Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 86:3: the psalmist cries daily for God's mercy.
Psalm 85:6Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 86:6: the psalmist asks the good God to hear his prayer.
Psalm 85:7Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 86:7: the psalmist prays confidently because God has answered him before.
Psalm 87:2–3Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 88:1-2: the psalmist cries day and night to the God of his salvation.
Psalm 87:10Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 88:9: the psalmist's eyes waste with weeping as he stretches out his hands to God all day.
Psalm 87:13Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 88:12-13: since the dead cannot see God's wonders, the psalmist prays at dawn for deliverance in this life.
Psalm 101:2Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 102:1: the psalmist begs God to hear his plea.
Psalm 101:18Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 102:17: God heard the captives' prayer and freed them.
Psalm 102:22Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 103:22: praise 'in every place' belongs to Christians, not to the exiles who could not sing the Lord's song abroad, since Christ taught worship in spirit and truth everywhere.
Psalm 104:4Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 105:4: God's help must be sought throughout life, as Christ promised to those who ask and seek.
Psalm 105:23Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 106:23: Moses' intercession after the calf turned away God's wrath.
Psalm 105:44Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 106:44: in distress Israel prayed and God heard them.
Psalm 105:48Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 106:48: 'So be it, so be it' is the Hebrew 'Amen, amen,' the origin of the people's Amen to the priest's doxology in church.
Psalm 106:6Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 107:6: the pious exiles such as Daniel and his companions prayed for mercy, and God also pitied the groaning nations who did not know to ask him.
Psalm 108:3Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 109:2–4: the council hated Christ without cause, repaying his kindness with slander, while he prayed for them on the cross.
Psalm 113:9–10Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 115:1–2: Israel prays that God act for his own name's sake, lest the nations take their captivity for God's weakness.
Psalm 114:3Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 116:3–4: the Maccabean faithful, brought near death and fleeing to the desert, sought God's help with tears and were heard.
Psalm 117:25Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 118:25: a prayer for continued salvation and an easy way to God.
Psalm 118:55Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 119:55–56: the saints pray at night, but 'night' here is the time of trial, when remembering God is most needed.
Psalm 118:58Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 119:58: the psalmist prays wholeheartedly and asks mercy 'according to God's word,' leaving the manner to God, who like a physician may heal through discipline, poverty, or sickness.
Psalm 118:62Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 119:62: the psalmist praised God even at midnight, as Paul and Silas did in prison.
Psalm 118:134Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 119:134: Christ called the slandered blessed but taught us to pray against temptation, so the prayer agrees with the gospel.
Psalm 118:145Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 119:145: the 'cry' is the soul's eagerness, as with Moses, who cried to God in silence.
Psalm 118:147Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 119:147: though a busy king and warrior, David prayed even before dawn.
Psalm 118:148Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 119:148: David meditated at dawn, a reproach to those who, though free of cares, sleep through the night and morning without praise.
Psalm 118:164Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 119:164: 'seven times' may mean 'very often'; either way it shows untiring praise.
Psalm 118:169Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 119:169: the psalmist asks that his prayer be accepted and that he receive understanding of God's word.
Psalm 118:170Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 119:170: the psalmist varies his words in pleading with God.
Psalm 125:5Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 126:5–6: tears in prayer, like seed, yield a joyful harvest.
Psalm 129:1Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 130:1: 'out of the depths' means prayer from the heart, unlike the lip-service condemned by Jeremiah and Isaiah.
Psalm 133:1Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 134:1: praise belongs to God's faithful servants (sinners should rather weep and seek mercy); though prayer is fitting everywhere, it is especially due in consecrated places.
Psalm 133:2Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 134:2: night, with its quiet, is the right time for praise with uplifted hands.
Psalm 140:1Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 141:1: David, pursued by Saul, cries to God, the 'cry' being the soul's eagerness, as with Moses.
Psalm 140:2Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 141:2: prayer joined to good deeds (the raised hands) should rise like incense; the 'evening' sacrifice reflects David's dark circumstances.
Psalm 141:2Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 142:1: hiding in the cave, David could not shout; his 'cry' was the eagerness of his mind.
Psalm 141:3Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 142:2: David poured out his distress before God.
Psalm 142:6Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 143:6–8: David thirsts for God's help like dry land for rain, fears death if God turns away, and asks for quick mercy and guidance.
Psalm 144:18Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 145:18: God, present everywhere, is 'near' in relationship to those who call on him sincerely and do his will.
Psalm 144:19Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 145:19: God does the will of those who fear him because they first do his will and want nothing against it.
On the Governance of God 1.21Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · If God neglected the world, prayer and worship would be pointless.
On the Governance of God 1.22Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · Paul commands prayer for present peace, showing God hears for this life.
On the Governance of God 1.23Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · On the opponents’ view, Christians would have to pray only for things after death.
On the Governance of God 1.24Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · A God who would not hear prayers about this life would not hear prayers about the next.
On the Governance of God 2.3Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · God watches over the righteous and his ears are open to their prayers.
On the Governance of God 2.4Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · God is always ready to hear the saints; objection: this applies only to the righteous.
On the Governance of God 3.11Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · Even prayers for enemies are often mere words; Christians obey almost none of God’s commands.
On the Governance of God 3.41Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · We complain that God ignores us while we ignore him.
On the Governance of God 3.42Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · God refuses to hear those who refused to hear him.
On the Governance of God 3.48Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · Many plot new sins even while praying for pardon for old ones.
On the Governance of God 4.88Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · Despite David’s penance and prayers, his child died.
On the Governance of God 7.38Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · Goths and Vandals, though heretics, pray to God in danger and thank him for success.
On the Governance of God 7.39Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · In the war of 439 the humble Goths, who trusted God and sent bishops to ask peace, defeated the proud Romans who trusted the Huns.
On the Governance of God 7.44Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · The Gothic king prayed in sackcloth before battle and won.
Church History 1.20Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · A captive Christian woman heals the Iberian king’s child and queen; the king, saved from darkness while hunting, converts with his people, a column is miraculously raised, and the Iberians ask Constantine for a bishop.
Church History 1.37Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Arius, summoned to Constantinople, is to be received into communion; bishop Alexander of Constantinople prays in the church of Irene that God decide between his faith and Arius’s.
Church History 2.11Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Gregory is installed at Alexandria by soldiers; Athanasius escapes among the psalm-singing congregation and goes to Rome; Eusebius asks Julius to judge the case.
Church History 4.23Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Socrates digresses on the Egyptian monks: Amoun's chaste marriage, sayings of Pambo and others, the two Macarii, Evagrius's writings with excerpts from his Practical Life and Gnostic, and Ammonius who cut off his ear to avoid becoming a bishop.
Church History 5.19Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Nectarius abolishes the office of penitentiary presbyter at Constantinople after a woman's confession exposes a deacon's sin; Socrates doubts the wisdom of the change.
Church History 5.22Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Socrates digresses on the diversity of church customs: the date of Easter, the Lenten fast, Saturday and Sunday assemblies, clerical continence, baptism, and other local usages, arguing that such things rest on custom, not apostolic law.
Church History 5.25Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Eugenius and Arbogast murder Valentinian II; Theodosius defeats them at the Frigidus, helped, Socrates says, by a wind that answered his prayer.
Church History 6.8Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · John organizes Nicene night processions with hymns to counter the Arians' antiphonal songs, leading to a riot; Socrates traces antiphonal singing to a vision of Ignatius of Antioch.
Church History 6.23Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Arcadius's prayer at the martyr-shrine of Acacius saves a crowd from a collapsing house, and he dies in 408; an alternative version of the quarrel of Severian and Serapion from other manuscripts is appended.
Church History 7.8Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Maruthas of Mesopotamia, as Roman envoy, wins the favour of the Persian king Yazdegerd I by exposing the magi's tricks and healing his son, and Christianity spreads in Persia.
Church History 7.18Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · When Bahram V persecutes the Persian Christians and they flee to Roman territory, Theodosius II goes to war; angels encourage the Romans and a panic drowns Persia's Saracen allies in the Euphrates.
Church History 7.22Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Socrates praises Theodosius II's piety, fasting, learning, forbearance and refusal to execute, and his turning a stormy day at the hippodrome into common prayer.
Church History 7.23Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · After Honorius's death the usurper John seizes the West; Ardaburius is captured, but an angel in the form of a shepherd leads Aspar through the marsh to Ravenna, and Theodosius leads the people in thanksgiving.
Church History 7.37Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · The frail ascetic Silvanus, moved from cold Philippopolis to Troas, launches a stuck ship by prayer and has disputes judged by honest laymen; Maximian becomes bishop of Constantinople in 431.
Church History 7.39Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · In a great fire at Constantinople in 433 the Novatian church is preserved untouched while Bishop Paul prays at the altar.
Church History 7.43Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · The Huns who had supported the usurper John are struck by lightning, plague and fire from heaven; Proclus applies Ezekiel's prophecy against Gog to the deliverance.
Church History 7.47Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Theodosius gives thanks to God and sends the empress Eudocia to Jerusalem to fulfil a vow; she endows the churches of the East.
Church History 2.7Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · A Christian captive woman heals a child and the queen of the Iberians; the king, rescued from darkness while hunting, accepts Christ; a column of their first church is miraculously raised, and they ask Constantine for priests.
Church History 2.29Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · Eusebius's party threatens Bishop Alexander of Constantinople unless he receives Arius; Alexander prays all night, and on the eve of the appointed day Arius dies suddenly in a public latrine.
Church History 3.20Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · Under pressure from Constans, Constantius recalls Athanasius, who refuses communion with Leontius at Antioch and asks a church for the Eustathians; the rival doxologies at Antioch and Leontius's saying about the melting snow.
Church History 4.16Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · A planned synod at Nicomedia is cancelled when an earthquake destroys the city, foreseen by the confessor Arsacius, who dies praying; after much correspondence the Arian leaders arrange for separate councils at Ariminum and Seleucia.
Church History 6.29Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · Sozomen continues with the monks of Egypt: Apollo, Dorotheus, Piammon and John, Benjamin, Mark, Macarius the younger, Apollonius, Moses the Ethiopian, Paul of Pherme, Pachon, Stephen, Moses the Libyan and Pior.
Church History 6.33Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · The monks of Mesopotamia and Syria: the “Grazers” of Mount Sigoron near Nisibis, Eusebius the recluse and the bishops Vitus and Protogenes at Carrhae, and Aones at Phadana, pioneer of Syrian anchoritism.
Church History 6.34Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · Monks of Edessa (Julian, Ephraem, Barses, Eulogius) and of Syria, their austerities and long lives spreading the faith among Syrians, Persians and Saracens; and the communal monks of Galatia and Cappadocia, including Prapidius, head of Basil’s Basileias.
Church History 7.24Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · Theodosius prays at the Hebdomon church of John the Baptist, wins over part of Eugenius’s army at the Alpine pass, and defeats the usurper at the Frigidus by a miraculous wind; Eugenius is beheaded and Arbogast kills himself.
Church History 7.26Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · Bishop Donatus of Euroea kills a dragon with the sign of the cross and his spittle and brings forth a spring by prayer; Theotimus of Tomi, called “the God of the Romans” by the Huns, is made invisible to them and paralyses the arm of one who tried to lasso him.
Church History 8.8Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · When the Arians sing provocative antiphonal hymns in nightly processions, Chrysostom organizes rival Nicene processions with silver crosses and candles; after fighting the emperor bans the Arian processions, and the Nicene night hymns continue.
Church History 9.3Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · Pulcheria and her sisters live a common life of prayer, charity and weaving in the palace, and God protects the young emperor’s reign.
Canon 20Anonymous · 441 · Catechumens are not to share the blessing of the faithful even at household prayers, but are blessed separately.
Church History 1.23Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 449-450 · A captive Christian woman heals a child and the queen of the Iberians by prayer; the king, struck blind while hunting and healed when he calls on her God, builds a church to her plan and asks Constantine for a bishop; Constantine also writes to the king of Persia on behalf of the Christians there.
Church History 2.19Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 449-450 · Leontius, a self-made eunuch, becomes bishop of Antioch, hides his Arian views by muttering the doxology, promotes Arians such as Aetius, and is opposed by the ascetics Flavian and Diodore, who introduce antiphonal psalm singing and night vigils at the martyrs' shrines.
Church History 2.26Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 449-450 · During a Persian siege of Nisibis, Shapur breaches the walls by unleashing a dammed river, but Bishop James by prayer has them rebuilt overnight; a vision of an emperor on the walls dismays Shapur, and at Ephrem's urging James calls down swarms of gnats that rout the Persian elephants and horses.
Church History 3.10Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 449-450 · The son of a pagan priest, taught by a deaconess, flees to Meletius; his father finds him, tortures him with hot spits and locks him up, but the door's bolts fall away at his prayer, and disguised as a woman he escapes to Cyril of Jerusalem; later he converts his father, and Theodoret heard the story from him in old age.
Church History 3.14Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 449-450 · Julian has Artemius, former military commander in Egypt, executed for destroying idols; Publia, a widow leading a choir of virgins in Antioch, sings psalms against idols as he passes, and when beaten on his orders continues her singing.
Church History 3.19Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 449-450 · The Syrian ascetic Julian Saba, praying far from the front, perceives at the very hour of Julian's death that the persecutor has been slain, and his companions later confirm the day and hour.
Church History 4.10Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 449-450 · The Messalians (Euchites or Enthusiasts) reject work, treat dreams as prophecy, and hold that baptism and the Eucharist are of no effect and only prayer expels the demon each person inherits; bishops Letoius and Amphilochius suppress them, and Flavian of Antioch draws a confession from their leader Adelphius by feigned sympathy.
Church History 4.23Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 449-450 · Valens, seeing the old ascetic Aphrahat on his way to the orthodox assembly, tells him to pray at home; Aphrahat answers that a girl must leave her room when her father's house is on fire, and a chamberlain who threatened him dies scalded in the emperor's bath, but Valens does not change.
Church History 5.19Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 449-450 · When Antioch riots over a new tax and drags the empress Placilla's statue through the streets (387), Theodosius threatens to destroy the city, but the delay required by Ambrose's law and the plea of the hermit Macedonius to the imperial commissioners, that God's living images are worth more than bronze ones, move him to clemency.
Church History 5.24Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 449-450 · Before the battle against the usurper Eugenius (394), Theodosius consults the Egyptian monk John, refuses to retreat before the image of Hercules, prays all night, and sees John the evangelist and Philip the apostle promising help; a soldier sees the same vision, a wind blows the enemy's missiles back, Eugenius's men surrender, and Eugenius is captured and executed.
Part 1, chapter 16Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Abraham’s intercession and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah foreshadow the day of judgment; Lot’s wife warns believers not to look back, and those who glory in the cross await that day without fear.
Part 1, chapter 35Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Moses’ rod that swallowed the magicians’ serpents figures Christ’s teaching consuming pagan and heretical doctrines; his hand made white as snow figures Christ’s intercession cleansing sins.
Part 3, chapter 37Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The Psalm’s call to kings to serve the Lord is fulfilled as rulers take up Christ’s yoke; justice, mercy, and prayer for rulers are commended, with a line of Virgil.
Part 5, chapter 11Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The saints’ unending Alleluia the impious will neither hear nor see.
Antony 1Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · In a time of listlessness Antony is shown by an angel the rhythm of work and prayer that will save him.
Antony 16Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Antony tells a brother that another’s prayer is useless unless he himself strives and prays.
Arsenius 3Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Assailed by demons, Arsenius prays to God for grace to make a beginning of good.
Arsenius 27Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · A brother sees Arsenius at prayer as wholly like fire.
Arsenius 30Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Arsenius prayed with outstretched hands from Saturday sunset until Sunday’s sunrise.
Agathon 9Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Agathon calls prayer the hardest labor; a note follows on his wisdom and frugality.
Ammon of Nitria 3Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · A brother trapped by a woman prays as Amoun taught and is carried back to Scetis.
Apollo 2Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · A shepherd who murdered a pregnant woman becomes a monk and prays ceaselessly for forgiveness.
Bessarion 4Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Bessarion and Doulas find a silent hermit dead in a cave and discover she was a woman.
Benjamin 4Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Dying, Benjamin commends Paul’s threefold rule of joy, prayer, and thanksgiving.
Gelasius 3Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Gelasius secretly raises to life a boy accidentally killed by his cellarer.
Epiphanius of Cyprus 3Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Epiphanius tells monks that keeping the set hours is not enough; a monk must pray unceasingly.
Epiphanius of Cyprus 6Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Epiphanius contrasts biblical figures heard or condemned regardless of loud or silent prayer.
Epiphanius of Cyprus 7Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · David prayed at every hour, as his ‘seven times a day’ shows.
Evagrius 3Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Undistracted psalmody is greater even than undistracted prayer.
Zeno 7Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Zeno teaches that prayer for one’s enemies first makes all prayer heard.
Zacharias 2Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Moses sees the Spirit of God resting on Zacharias at prayer.
Isaiah 4Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · The presbyter of Pelusium rebukes chattering brothers at a love-feast by pointing to one whose prayer rises like fire.
Elijah 6Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Psalmody without the mind is vain; affliction loved turns to joy.
Theodore of Enaton 3Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · If God counted our distractions in prayer, none could be saved.
Amma Theodora 3Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Theodora warns that the devil attacks soul and body when one seeks stillness, and tells of a monk whose fever left when he prayed anyway.
John the Dwarf (Colobos) 12Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · John flees to God in prayer as a man climbs a tree to escape beasts.
John the Dwarf (Colobos) 13Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Freed from temptation, John is told to pray for the battle to return, since the soul grows through it.
John the Dwarf (Colobos) 35Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · After any outing John prayed until his mind regained its order.
Isidore 4Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · In his youth Isidore made all day and night his prayer.
Joseph of Panephysis 7Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Joseph’s fingers become like ten flames as he tells Lot to become wholly like fire.
Cyrus 1Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Cyrus explains that tempting thoughts show one is not committing the deed, and urges fleeing real women and praying.
Lucius 1Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Lucius shows the Euchites how work, prayer, and almsgiving together fulfill “pray without ceasing.”
Longinus 4Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · A demon cast out by Zeno confesses it leaves because of Longinus’s distant prayers.
Macarius the Egyptian 7Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Macarius makes a dead man reveal where he hid a deposit, saving a widow’s children; then (saying 8) he fetches a cake from Alexandria for a sick hermit.
Macarius the Egyptian 14Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Exhausted, Macarius prays and finds himself carried to the river.
Macarius the Egyptian 19Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Macarius teaches short prayer: “Lord, as you will, have mercy,” and in temptation, “Lord, help.”
Macarius the Egyptian 33Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Macarius discovers by vision the hidden holiness of two young foreign monks, whose cell he later shows as a martyr’s shrine.
Macarius the Egyptian 38Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · A pagan priest’s skull tells Macarius that his prayers bring some relief to the damned, and that apostates suffer worse.
Moses 13Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Moses, out of water for his guests, pleads with God until a rain cloud fills his vessels.
Moses 16Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · God hears only one who knows himself a sinner and so does not see his neighbor’s sins.
Moses 17Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Prayer is vain unless one stops doing what one prays against.
Milesius 1Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Milesius raises a murdered man who clears a falsely accused monk and names the real killer.
Macarius the Citizen 3Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Macarius finds a brother always at prayer for four months and calls him an earthly angel.
Nilus 1Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Revenge returns to trouble the heart at prayer.
Nilus 2Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Prayer grows from meekness and freedom from anger.
Nilus 3Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Prayer is the remedy for grief and despondency.
Nilus 4Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Renunciation and self-denial make undistracted prayer possible.
Nilus 5Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · What one endures in the ascetic life bears fruit in prayer.
Nilus 6Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · True prayer requires grieving no one.
Nilus 7Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Seek God’s will, not your own, and your prayer will be calm and thankful.
Nisterus 5Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Nisterus counsels daily self-examination, prayer in God’s presence, and avoidance of oaths, lies, curses, and laughter.
Xoius 2Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Xoius prays for rain at Sinai and it falls at once.
Poemen 7Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Brought to Poemen among all the brothers, a deformed child is healed when Poemen too makes the sign of the cross.
Poemen 9Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Poemen prays that his plea for a prisoner will fail, lest he become a sought-after intercessor, and rejoices when it does.
Poemen 87Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Poemen answers with Antony’s word that God himself calls for comforting (praying for) his people.
Poemen 146Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Quench the enemy’s fire of thoughts with the water of throwing oneself before God.
Poemen 160Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Fear God, pray, and do good to your neighbor.
Paul the Great 1Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Paul warns that going out for small needs exposes a monk to demons; and he describes himself as sunk in mud, crying for mercy.
Peter of Dios 1Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Peter of Dios, though a priest, humbly stood behind others at prayer.
Sisoes 1Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Sisoes shames a vengeful brother by praying that God need no longer defend them.
Sisoes 5Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · For thirty years Sisoes has prayed only to be guarded from his tongue, by which he still sins daily.
Sisoes 11Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Sisoes says Satan rages more as his time nears; then he wrestles God in prayer for his fallen disciple, and teaches that humility is greater than constant remembrance of God.
Silvanus 3Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Silvanus, found in ecstasy for hours, says he was caught up to see the glory of God.
Serapion 1Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Serapion converts a prostitute by spending the night praying the whole Psalter for her; she becomes a recluse.
Amma Sarah 1Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · For thirteen years Sarah prayed not to be freed from temptation but for strength in it.
Amma Sarah 2Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Sarah answers the defeated spirit of lust that Christ, not she, has conquered it.
Amma Sarah 5Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Sarah prays for a pure heart rather than to please all, and keeps death before her eyes at every step.
Amma Syncletica 3Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Prayer with fasting drives out evil thoughts like strong drugs repel venomous beasts.
Tithoes 1Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Tithoes lowered his hands quickly in prayer lest he be rapt in ecstasy before others.
Tithoes 7Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Tithoes names self-control, prayer, and self-abasement as the road to humility.
Life of Syncletica 17Anonymous · 5th–6th century · She pruned her thoughts by fasting and prayer, and punished every stirring of desire by hard bodily discipline.
Life of Syncletica 18Anonymous · 5th–6th century · Against the devil’s attacks she prayed, fasted on bran bread and little water and slept on the ground, armed with prayer, faith, hope and love.
Life of Syncletica 19Anonymous · 5th–6th century · When the attacks ceased she moderated her fasting, acting with discretion, like sailors who rest in a calm but stay watchful; she steered her soul safely to harbor by faith.
Life of Syncletica 29Anonymous · 5th–6th century · Against impure thoughts she advises prayer and asceticism, and also picturing the desired body as decaying flesh and bone, and above all controlling the belly.
Life of Syncletica 40Anonymous · 5th–6th century · There is godly grief over sin and for others’ salvation, and a destructive grief from the devil, acedia, which must be driven away by prayer and psalmody.
Life of Syncletica 66Anonymous · 5th–6th century · Listening to slander stains prayer and colors one’s view of everyone, so one should refuse to hear it.
Life of Syncletica 80Anonymous · 5th–6th century · Having cut off their hair, ascetics must also remove the lice of slander, perjury and greed; in a clean life even small sins show, so the soul must be cleaned constantly by prayer and fasting.
Life of Syncletica 92Anonymous · 5th–6th century · As brides adorn themselves for husbands, virgins betrothed to Christ should adorn their souls with faith, hope, love, humility, chastity and poverty, and pray with understanding, lest they lack oil like the foolish virgins.
Life of Syncletica 99Anonymous · 5th–6th century · Sickness that prevents prayer and fasting does their work for them; enduring it with thanksgiving is the great asceticism, for loss of the senses frees the inner man.
Genesis Question 74Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · The oath under the thigh recalled circumcision and God's promise; the servant's prayer for a sign was not divination but a pious request that sought a bride marked by hospitality and gentleness.
Genesis Question 76Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Rebecca probably inquired of God at one of the patriarchs' altars rather than through Melchizedek.
Exodus Question 41Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Theodoret takes the third commandment to forbid using God's name casually, outside teaching, prayer, or real need.
Exodus Question 53Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Coming before God “not empty” means bringing alms if one has wealth, or virtue if one has chosen poverty.
Exodus Question 66Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Theodoret partly excuses Aaron's making of the calf as a failed attempt to restrain the people, though Aaron still needed Moses' intercession to escape death.
Exodus Question 67Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · God's “let me alone” was really an invitation to Moses to intercede, and Moses appealed to the promises made to the patriarchs.
Leviticus Question 10Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Priests were forbidden wine only while serving; the episode of the uneaten sin offering teaches that clergy who live on the people's offerings must pray earnestly for them.
1 Kingdoms Question 3Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · God, not marriage alone, gives children; Hannah's prayer, meekness and faith are praised, and her song is read as prophecy of Christ and the church.
3 Kingdoms Question 12Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Sacrifice on the high places before the temple was irregular but not idolatry; at Gibeon Solomon asked for wisdom and received it with wealth and peace besides.
3 Kingdoms Question 27Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Solomon's prayer acknowledges that the boundless God is not contained by the temple but shows himself there, and asks that all who pray toward it, Israelites, foreigners, penitents and captives, be heard.
3 Kingdoms Question 47Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · God preserved David's line for David's sake; Asa purged idolatry and was victorious by faith, yet left the high places and later trusted Syria rather than God.
3 Kingdoms Question 54Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · God let the widow's son die to rouse Elijah's compassion and to confirm the widow's faith by his resurrection; then God himself asked Elijah to end the drought.
3 Kingdoms Question 58Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Elijah gave Baal's prophets every advantage, mocked their failure, and then, after drenching the sacrifice three times, called down fire from God, before ending the drought.
4 Kingdoms Question 52Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Hezekiah paid Sennacherib from the temple treasures to save the city; when Rabshakeh blasphemed, he turned to prayer and Isaiah, and God destroyed the Assyrian army; Theodoret refers to his commentary on Isaiah for the rest.
2 Chronicles, question 1Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Theodoret's running commentary on 2 Chronicles 10–36 supplements Kings: God divides the kingdom and spares Judah for David's sake; pious kings (Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, Josiah) are rewarded and their lapses punished; impious ones (Joram, Joash, Amaziah, Uzziah, Ahaz) are disciplined; Manasseh repents; the book was compiled from prophetic sources after the exile.